Biden Vets Two California Women For His Running Mate

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Golden State may yet play a prominent and historic role in the November presidential election as presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden considers two Black women from California to be his running mate.

Los Angeles Congresswoman Karen Bass joined the list of candidates that includes Sen. Kamala Harris, who is considered one of the top contenders to share the ticket with Biden. Bass, a Los Angeles native and representative of California’s 37th District, is a new addition to the list of contenders and one of the most low-profile despite being the leader of the Congressional Black Caucus and driving force behind the police reform bill passed by the House. Weeks of civil unrest in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death have made a resume such as hers attractive for a Democratic dependent on the turnout of Black voters. She is a later addition to the pool of candidates that Biden is considering to be his running mate, a sign that he'd like more options to consider.

CBS News first reported that Bass was being vetted by the Biden campaign on Wednesday. Biden has said he will choose a woman to be his running mate, and the campaign plans to announce his pick in August. Among those under consideration are former national security adviser Susan Rice, second-term Florida Representative Val Demings. Second-term Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois.

Bass is among the most experienced of the candidates as a five-term congresswoman and former Speaker of the California State Assembly. However, she has never campaigned on the national stage. Unlike Rice, Harris and Warren, she does not have national name recognition. Both Warren and Harris endured the harsh spotlight of the national stage as well as months of vetting by the press in their failed presidential bids.

That may end up working out in Bass’ favor. The Los Angeles Times interviewed a Biden insider who quoted Biden as saying, “I’m looking for someone who can do the job, not someone who wants the other job.”

Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police last month and the racial unrest that followed have led to increased pressure for Biden to choose a Black woman. In addition to Bass and Harris, Demings and Lance Bottoms are among the Black women who are still engaged in the vetting process.

Bass could prove to be an ally as Biden walks the tightrope between courting Black voters and resisting pressure to defund the police, a goal of the Black Lives Matter movement. She has advocated for reform, but scoffs at the “defund” slogan.

“That’s probably one of the worst slogans ever,” she told Fox News. Instead, she advocates shifting certain social service tasks away from police, who aren’t trained to do them.

“Police officers are the first ones to say they are law enforcement officers, they're not social workers,” she told Fox. “What we have done in our country is, we have not invested in health, social and economic problems in communities. We leave the police to pick up the pieces. In my city, for example, on any given night, we have over 40,000 people who are homeless. Why should the police be involved with that?”

Bass and Warren are considered the most progressive among the candidates being vetted. Harris is seen as a centrist in line with Biden’s policies, however. Conventional wisdom holds the first term senator as a favorite among those in contention.

Harris, the former California Attorney General, famously clashed with Biden during the debates, but she threw her support behind Biden as soon as she dropped out of the race. In doing so, she helped him route Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday. Harris is in the advanced stage of the vetting process, and, according to NBC, is a frontrunner along with Warren. She held a fundraiser this month with Biden, raising $3.5 million for the campaign.

Harris, who claims both Jamaican and Indian heritage would be the first Black woman and first Asian American to be vice president. At 55, she would also bring relative youth to the ticket, a major concern as Biden would be the oldest president ever elected at 78. The 2020 vice presidential nominee decision also has taken on added weight given Biden’s advanced age.

City News Service contributed to this report.