Poll: Voters Disagree with Biden Over Importance of Race, Gender in Choosing VP
Experience trumps identity politics in a new poll concerning former Vice President Joe Biden’s selection of a running mate.
Now that Biden has all but secured the Democratic presidential nomination, the next major step is his selection of a vice presidential candidate. Biden has said he will pick a woman.
Gender, however, is not the top characteristic Democrats want in their vice president candidate, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday.
“While former 2020 candidates have an advantage in name ID, voters place a premium on executive and legislative experience for the Democratic vice-presidential pick,” Morning Consult vice president Tyler Sinclair said. “This experience is top of mind for voters amid this pandemic, as seen in the high approval ratings for their governors.”
The survey found that only 29 percent of voters polled said it was important to them that Biden’s running mate be female. Thirty-four percent said it was “very unimportant.” Only 22 percent said choosing a non-white running mate was important.
Forty-eight percent of those polled said it was important that Biden, 77, pick a running mate who is younger than he is. Overall, 66 percent said Biden’s pick should have executive experience and 67 percent said the person Biden picks should have legislative experience.
The survey found that only 25 percent said it was important Biden picks someone more liberal than he is.
The survey’s margin of error was two percent.
The results were slightly different among the Democratic contingent of those surveyed. Thirty-six percent of Democrats said it was important that Biden’s pick be a person of color while 49 percent said it was important that the pick be a woman.
Although those numbers were higher than in the overall sample, they still trailed the need for experience. Seventy-nine percent of Democrats said it was important that Biden’s running mate have executive experience while 81 percent said it was important that his running mate have legislative experience.
Among Democrats, 53 percent said it was important that Biden pick someone younger than he is while 41 percent said it was important that he pick someone more liberal than he is.
Many on Twitter are lending their opinions to the debate of whom Biden should pick.
OK guys, just putting this out there.
I endorse Sen. Kamala Harris for Vice-President of the United States.
Biden/Harris
— Covie (@roper_93) April 8, 2020
https://t.co/5mNMnJ7Kh1 This is the only thing giving me hope as we watch the march of Biden, who was never my choice. If he picks anyone other than her, basically he won’t win.
— Brittney Cooper (@ProfessorCrunk) April 15, 2020
Imagine this Administration:
President Joe Biden
Vice-President Stacy Abrams
Treasury Sec. Warren
Sec. Health/Human Serv. Sanders
Attorney General Harris
Sec. of Labor Yang
Sec. of Defense Buttigieg
Sec. of State KlobucharEach campaigning on how they’d run their own space. ?.
— Robert J. DeNault (@robertjdenault) April 8, 2020
Biden has indicated he might have eleven to fifteen names on his list of potential running mates, according to USA Today.
Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — all of whom challenged Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination — are among those listed as potential choices.
Biden has cited Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as one possible pick.
In its rundown of possible picks, USA Today included Stacey Abrams, who lost the Georgia gubernatorial race in 2018 and has said she wants to be vice president; Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin; Rep. Val Demings of Florida; Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois; New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham; and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada.
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