Joe Biden has selected Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate ahead of November’s general election. The 55-year-old California senator is the first Black woman and the first person of Indian-Jamaican descent to be nominated for national office by a major party.
She is also only the fourth woman in history to be chosen for one of their presidential tickets.
Biden’s selection of Harris – a former rival during the Democratic primaries – comes on the back of calls by a group of over 100 prominent Black male leaders across various fields including sports, entertainment, religion, academia, social justice and politics.
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The group wrote an open letter to Biden, urging him to select a Black woman as his running mate in the November elections.
Biden made the announced of Harris as his pick in a text message as well as a follow-up email to supporters, The New York Times reported. “Joe Biden here. Big news: I’ve chosen Kamala Harris as my running mate. Together, with you, we’re going to beat Trump.”
The open letter, which was signed by the likes of Sean “Diddy” Combs, basketball star Chris Paul, attorney Ben Crump, University of Virginia medical school dean Marcus Martin, Nick Cannon, among others, is to stand in solidarity with the over 700 Black women leaders who also signed an open letter in April urging Biden to pick a Black female VP. According to the male leaders in the Monday letter, Biden will lose the 2020 elections if he fails to select Black female.
Earlier this year, Biden flirted with the idea of having former First Lady Michelle Obama as his running mate.
“Well I sure would like Michelle to be the vice president,” Biden said in response to a voter in Muscatine, Iowa in January.
Biden ran against some 11 presidential aspirants to be selected as the flagbearer of the Democratic party in the November 2020 presidential election.
Running on the legacy of the eight years he served alongside President Barack Obama, Biden made no secret of his desire to have the former first lady as his vice president.
The pairing would have been the first in American politics as there has never been a presidential ticket that included a former first lady in the vice president slot.
