Biden’s VP choice: Klobuchar, 2nd favourite in the betting less than a month go, has withdrawn from being considered
She says a person of colour should be chosen
The big political betting news is a piece in the New York Times reporting that Senator Amy Klobuchar has written to Joe Biden saying she doesn’t want to be considered for the Democratic VP nomination. As the Betdata.io chart of the Betfair exchange shows Klobuchar was 24% second favourite less than a month ago.
The paper reports:
Ms. Klobuchar, a moderate and veteran of the Senate like Mr. Biden, was known to have a strong rapport with the presumptive Democratic nominee, and was an early favorite of a significant number of his donors and supporters. But her case for being Mr. Biden’s running mate was badly damaged after the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police officers. The death, which has prompted weeks of demonstrations and protests against police violence across the country, led to renewed scrutiny of Ms. Klobuchar’s career as a local prosecutor in Minneapolis. “After what I’ve seen in my state and what I’ve seen across the country, this is a historic moment and America must seize on this moment,” she said. “I truly believe, as I told the vice president last night, that I believe that this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket.”
Biden has committed publicly to the VP nominee being a woman and all the main contenders are women. The question is whether he will follow the Klobuchar advice or will be choose a white person?
Given how far ahead the polls have him in key swing states then the pressure to have someone on the ticket who could being their state to the Democrats is much less.
My money is currently on Demmings and Warren – the latter because she and Biden go back a long way and my guess is that personal linkages might be important.