Is it time to make the announcement?
If Joe Biden wins South Carolina this weekend, and if his competitors do as poorly in the state as we expect them to, we’re likely to see mainstream Democratic voters start to strongly align behind Biden in order to stop divisive loose cannon Bernie Sanders from becoming the nominee. The big question is how Biden can capitalize on this momentum during the very brief window between South Carolina and Super Tuesday. One possibility: make the announcement. You know, the announcement.
It hasn’t been difficult to figure out what Joe Biden has been thinking when it comes to filling out a potential administration. Just before he entered the race, major media outlets reported that he was thinking of pre-announcing Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams as his running mate. Leaks like this don’t come from nowhere; Biden must have been at least fleetingly considering the idea of making the running mate announcement as part of his campaign kickoff.
Recently, Biden publicly stated that he wanted Kamala Harris in his administration, but he’d have to talk to her about what role she wanted. It’s not difficult to imagine Harris wanting to be Attorney General. She has the perfect background for cleaning up the DOJ and prosecuting Donald Trump and his co-conspirators for their crimes.
We don’t know if Biden will pick Abrams or Kamala or someone else as his running mate, but Biden surely knows by now. These people are known commodities, and it’s not as if Biden has to wait to find out who his general election opponent is going to be before making up his mind about his own ticket. The question is whether Biden would gain something by announcing his running mate, and perhaps a couple cabinet picks, right now.
The last time a presidential candidate announced a running mate in advance, it was when Ted Cruz had been just about eliminated from the 2016 Republican primary, and inexplicably annoucned the highly unpopular Carly Fiorina as his running mate. This elicited little more than laughter. But the 2020 Democratic primary is different. Democratic voters are looking for a reason to coalesce behind one of the mainstream Democratic candidates, and if Biden makes clear that he’s putting together a strong team that properly represents the party, it could motivate primary voters to get behind him.
There would be drawbacks to this, of course. If Joe Biden announces his running mate and then someone else ends up getting the nomination, it would then be difficult to imagine that person having any realistic chance of being the actual nominee’s running mate. This would also close the door to any of the current Democratic candidates being Biden’s running mate, which could end up alienating supporters of the other candidates. There’s also the reality that if Biden announces his running mate now, it gives Trump a lot more time to make up fake scandals about that person.
But with 70% of Democratic primary voters thus far making clear that they don’t want Sanders as the nominee, and a crowded field of mainstream Democrats being the only reason that one of them hasn’t surpassed Sanders, it may be time to think out of the box. We may be headed to a brokered convention anyway, so it’s not as if this is likely to play out like a traditional primary race. Joe Biden could send his poll numbers skyrocketing if he announces the right running mate immediately after winning South Carolina. Of course he has to win South Carolina first.
