/image%2F3692661%2F20191002%2Fob_eae8ee_usa-news.png)
Joe Biden is drawing on a short list of women, who outnumber men in population and voter numbers, to be included on the Democratic ticket.
Former Vice President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the William Hicks Anderson Community Center, July 28, 2020 in Wilmington, Del.
Joe Biden this week will do an unusual thing in American politics: He'll announce an individual representing a majority group to be his running mate.
No, that doesn't mean the presumptive Democratic nominee won't choose a person of color. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, former national security adviser Susan Rice and Rep. Karen Bass of California and Rep. Val Demings of Florida have been under consideration. Nor does it mean he's ruled out picking someone with a disability, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a war veteran who represents Illinois.
But Biden made a clear pledge while he was still struggling to win the Democratic nomination that he would choose a woman to be his vice president. And women are a majority, albeit one still fighting for equality.
While no woman has ever been president or vice president of the United States, females are a bare majority of the population, a bigger majority of voters and an even bigger percentage of Democratic voters.
This year, with national and battleground state polls showing female voters turning away from President Donald Trump, having a woman on board could inject some excitement into the Democratic ticket, providing a more forward-looking demographic to a party headed by a septuagenarian white man.
Biden has been in his home state of Delaware, meeting with finalists and narrowing his choice. His pick, his campaign said, will appear with Biden at a joint even for the first time at a virtual fundraiser.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer met with the former vice president in Rehoboth, Delaware, on Aug. 2. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is also reportedly under consideration. Other names being floated include Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Female voters do not always vote for a female candidate, however. The gender gap – the difference between the percentage of women and the percentage of men voting for a particular candidate – was tied for the biggest in history in 2016,according to the Center for the American Woman in Politics at Rutgers University. Trump still won the election.
Women overall favored Democrat Hillary Clinton, who won 54% of female voters, compared to 41% who voted for Trump, according to exit polls. White women, however, favored Trump, 52% to 43%, giving him an edge in key states.
Having a woman on the ticket has not historically guaranteed a majority of the female vote. When former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York became the first female major party vice presidential nominee in 1984, Democrat Walter Mondale still lost the female vote to President Ronald Reagan, who got 58% of the women's vote compared to 42% for Mondale.
In 2008, 56% of female voters cast ballots for President Barack Obama, and 43% of women voted for GOP nominee John McCain – even though he had put a woman, former Alaska Gov, Sarah Palin, on the ticket.
Biden has delayed the announcement of his decision a couple of times. He originally indicated it would occur around Aug. 1 but said last week there was no reason to rush.
"This is, in fact, ahead of time," since often, vice presidential nominees are not revealed until right before the national political convention, Biden told interviewers with the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists last week. "I've gone through it. It's very orderly."