(WTXL) — Joe Biden has selected his running mate, revealing to top advisers on Tuesday the woman he will invite to join his Democratic presidential ticket and it is Kamala Harris.
As part of the selection process, the former vice president reportedly spoke directly to the final contenders.
Last week that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had flown to Delaware for a meeting. California Sen. Kamala Harris and former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice are among the others seen as the most serious contenders.
Biden's selection ended a months-long search that was conducted almost entirely in secret.
It reflected a critical strategic choice by the former VP: To go with a running mate who could reassure voters about gaps in his resumé, rather than to pick someone who could deliver a state or reinforce the Biden campaign's message of change.
Kamala Harris was widely considered the front-runner during the long process. She has a resume that includes time in the U.S. Senate and as California's attorney general, as well as San Francisco's district attorney. She has a diverse background, with a mother from India and a father from Jamaica.
She's at least been somewhat vetted by the national media, given that she ran for president last year and was considered, for a time, as a top-tier candidate.
In the first primary debate last June, Harris suggested Biden's past views against desegregating schools through mandatory busing was hurtful, but she raised $2 million for Biden in a recent virtual event.
The vice presidential debate is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, October 7, 2020, at Kingsbury Hall at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
If Biden wins the 2020 Presidential election he will be the oldest elected president in the U.S.
