Wide-scale protests that have exposed deep racial tensions across the nation in the last two weeks are reshaping the contours of Joe Biden’s search for a vice presidential pick, sharpening the focus on an African American woman as his running mate and elevating the prospects of several candidates once viewed as longshots.
The campaign sees the outpouring of anger and emotion in the wake of George Floyd’s death as a watershed moment that has made the issue of a black running mate a top consideration, two sources familiar with the internal discussions say.
In the last week alone, two prospects who were initially not considered among the top tier contenders have suddenly burst into contention: Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Florida Rep. Val Demings.
Both have been tapped by the Biden campaign to act as leading surrogates amid the unrest and have seen their national media exposure intensify. The national demand for Bottoms has been so high in the wake of national protests, she’s adding staff to handle the crush of interest.
Bottoms is being vetted as a Biden running mate, two sources with knowledge of the discussions confirm to POLITICO. Demings, a former Orlando police chief, has previously confirmed she’s being vetted.
The Biden campaign, which has grappled with the question of whether to focus on race or region in choosing a vice presidential candidate, caution that the search is still fluid.
But campaign advisers and surrogates confirm that the dynamics of Biden’s search have quickly changed.
Biden, a former vice president himself, said recently he hopes to name a running mate by early August and has given no clear signals about which direction he is leaning other than to say his pick will be a woman.
“The time for the old playbook of getting geographic balance on the ticket has gone out the window with Sarah Palin,” said former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.), the first African American woman to serve in the Senate and a Biden surrogate. “These are extraordinary times, Joe is an extraordinary candidate. The only way he’s going to get the voters energized is to have a black woman candidate — a black woman — for vice president.”
Just 10 days ago, top Biden surrogates pointed to Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar as a leading contender because of her appeal as a moderate from the Midwest. But her star has fallen in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Social-justice activists have been sharply critical of Klobuchar’s past record as a Minneapolis-area prosecutor and have urged Biden not to choose her.
Moseley Braun said the campaign must take heed from the outpouring in the streets.
“It’s not just a signal, it’s a cry. It’s a cry from the heart from American people — ‘we need to move into another direction,’” she said. “We need to repudiate white supremacy.”
One source familiar with the internal discussions about vice presidential selection described the campaign’s view on the need for a black vice president as “an evolution” over the last two weeks.
In an interview, Bottoms deferred to the Biden campaign on questions about her prospects as a Biden running mate.
“I can tell you that obviously like so many mayors and governors across this country, my complete focus has been on our streets the last few days,” Bottoms said.
Within the campaign, the Atlanta mayor is viewed as a loyal, frontline warrior who stood with Biden almost as soon as he launched his 2020 bid last year. Her standing has been bolstered by her recent emergence as an authoritative voice at a time of racial duress in the country.
Bottoms began seeing a rise in TV bookings in the peak Covid-era, when she spoke frequently of how the virus was disproportionately affecting African Americans. But she became a ubiquitous presence on the airwaves in the wake of a widely lauded, off-script speech on May 29 that followed an evening when thousands of protesters — and looters — took to the streets of Atlanta.
“When I saw the murder of George Floyd, I hurt like a mother would hurt. And, yesterday, when I heard there were rumors about violent protests in Atlanta, I did what a mother would do. I called my son and I said, 'Where are you?' I said, 'I cannot protect you, and black boys shouldn't be out today,’” she said at a news conference calling for the violence to cease. “So you aren’t going to out-concern me and out-care about where we are in America. I wear this each and every day. And I pray over our children each and every day.”
Bottoms castigated wrongdoers, telling them they disgraced Martin Luther King’s legacy of enacting change through peaceful protest.
“What I see happening on the streets of Atlanta is not Atlanta. This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos,” she said. “A protest has purpose. When Dr. King was assassinated we didn’t do this to our city. So if you love this city, this city that has a legacy of black mayors and black police chiefs … if you care about this city, then go home.”
The first big city mayor to endorse Biden, Bottoms has served as a campaign trail surrogate for well over a year, defending him on national TV through various verbal gaffes and campaign flubs — even after Biden clashed with Kamala Harris on the presidential primary debate stage, when the California senator excoriated his record on race.
Harris, who has run statewide twice before, is also being considered as a possible running mate and had been viewed as an early favorite candidate.
But while Harris sat on the sidelines for a time after she exited the 2020 field, Bottoms volunteered for Biden in Iowa. On caucus night, the former judge and Atlanta city council member even stepped up to give an impromptu speech about Biden’s candidacy when the precinct captain didn’t show. Throughout the campaign, Bottoms traveled extensively through the South on Biden’s behalf, joining him for events in Tennessee, South Carolina and Texas, among other places.
When Biden’s candidacy appeared on life support following routs in Iowa and New Hampshire, Bottoms went on national TV to remind audiences “the South has something to say” because the South Carolina primary had not yet taken place.
“She was with Joe Biden before it became cool to be with Joe Biden,” said Tharon Johnson, a longtime political senior adviser to Bottoms. “She was with Joe Biden when it was unpopular.”
Johnson said Bottoms, who is 50, would bring gender, racial, regional and generational balance to a Democratic ticket.
“That is someone that to me, has the stamina and has the vigor and the discipline that it takes to take on the national scene if she’s chosen ... She brings a level of humanization to the issues. She’s now built up a tremendous national profile,” Johnson said. “She not only shares his commitment to the issues, she complements Joe Biden’s vision of America.”
In addition to Harris and Demings, other African American women the campaign is considering include fellow Georgian, former Democratic state House leader Stacey Abrams, who has been a vocal advocate for her own candidacy, and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
The recent unrest and focus on police conduct has elevated Demings’ profile due to her unique backstory as both a black congresswoman and a former police chief of a major metropolitan force in Florida. Demings’ husband is also the former sheriff of the county.
Demings, who first drew national notice as a House impeachment manager of President Trump earlier this year, has seen a boomlet of media attention — ranging from Ellen to Sunday news shows to an on-camera interview with Time — as she calls for law enforcement reform.
Still, the 63-year-old congresswoman’s law-enforcement bona fides could prove problematic for some progressive activists, which one Biden campaign adviser described as a “delicate” situation.
But Demings’ ability to speak commandingly on the topic and straddle the divide between police and African-Americans has been a boon to the Biden campaign, which has increasingly used her as a surrogate to discuss the complex intersections of these two communities.
“To protect and serve, we all need to make adjustments,” Demings told POLITICO. “You know why we see police chiefs and officers walking hand in hand with protesters? You know why we see some officers taking a knee? Doggone, it’s because there needs to be reform. They know the criminal justice system they work in needs to be reformed.”
Orlando’s police department has had a history of excessive use of force, but the NAACP president of the region’s chapter who served at the same time that Demings was chief, vouched for her social-justice bonafides and tenure leading the agency from 2007 to 2011. Though also criticized by some local activists, Demings has been praised from both ends of the political spectrum, from the NAACP to the current head of the Florida Fraternal Order of Police, a Republican.
No major deaths or severe brutality cases appear to have unfolded on her watch, according to news clips and political supporters and detractors. But when she was chief in 2009, she suffered her biggest embarrassment after failing to properly lock her Chevy Tahoe, leading to the theft of her agency-issued 9 mm Sig Sauer gun, bullets, handcuffs and baton, according to the Orlando Sentinel. She was reprimanded by her own agency.
Whomever the campaign selects as Biden’s running mate, the decision must take into account the historical nature of recent events, said Florida state Rep. Shevrin Jones, an African American Democrat who hosted a virtual campaign event with Biden last month.
“The George Floyd killing has reshaped America’s thinking, the campaign, everything,” said Jones, who originally favored Sen. Elizabeth Warren as a vice presidential pick.
He now backs Demings for Biden’s running mate, saying she gives Biden the best chance to carry Florida, the biggest swing state in the nation and the home state she shares with Trump.
“This reshaped my thinking, too, as a reminder that there is a lack of regard for black lives in this country, and so there’s heightened awareness for that regard to have a black woman on his ticket,” Jones said. “We’re not speaking from a place of tokenism. This is reality. And the voice of black women cannot be missing.”
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