After many weeks of speculation, former Vice President Joe Biden has selected U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate for the 2020 US presidential election.
Biden’s choice is historic: Harris will be the first Black woman featured on a major political party’s presidential ticket in U.S. history. If the Biden-Harris ticket prevails, she will be the first woman to ever serve as vice president. Harris is only the second Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.
In a tweet Tuesday afternoon shortly after the announcement, Biden called the California senator “a fearless fighter for the little guy” and “one of the country’s finest public servants,” saying it was a “great honor” to have her on the ticket.
Biden announced in March that his eventual running mate would be a woman, resulting in a rampant speculation by pundits who is choice would be. Biden considered several other women for the ticket, including former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, California U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Harris brings to the table a tough reputation as a prosecutor, her career spanning the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, and serving two terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco from 2003-2011. She launched an unsuccessful bid for the presidential nomination that ended in December.
At 77 years old, if Biden wins the presidency he would be the oldest person ever inaugurated, edging out President Donald Trump, who took the oath of office at age 70. Harris, at 55, is considerably younger than her running mate. Her selection positions her as the future face of the Democratic Party.
In a tweet of her own shortly after the announcement, Harris praised her running mate as someone who “can unify the American people because he’s spent our life fighting for us,” she wrote.
“I’m honored to join him as our party’s nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.”
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