Two Black female dignitaries have recently been catapulted to the forefront of consideration as Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate.
According to Politico and The Hill, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Florida Rep. Val Demings, D-Jacksonville, were just recently considered longshots and afterthoughts to join the Biden presidential ticket. However, Bottoms, in particular, has shown a knack for stunning come-from-behind victories as she won the seat as CEO of Atlanta after beginning the mayoral race at the back of the pack.
A confluence of mutually agreeable circumstances has seen Bottoms’ fortunes work to the opposite of her last name as she recently rose to the top of a crowded VP pool. She became a national figure after she decried Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s premature reopening of the state of Georgia at the end of April amid the coronavirus pandemic. She also got major TV airplay in her critical analysis of the president’s handling of race relations during the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis.
Carol Moseley Braun, who made history as the first Black woman to ever serve as a senator from Illinois, said recent tumult born from the toxic combination of COVID-19 and national revolt over police brutality, has forced Biden to reassess his original list of VP candidates.
“The time for the old playbook of getting geographic balance on the ticket has gone out the window with Sarah Palin,” she said according to Politico. “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.”
Of the two possibilities, Bottoms is seen by political pundits as currently holding a slight edge over Demings as of early June 2020. Politico states that Biden’s goal is to choose a running mate by August.
