Detroit: After a devastating start to the Democratic primary, Joe Biden's campaign was revived when black voters in South Carolina and throughout the South overwhelmingly sided with him.
Now that he's the presumptive Democratic nominee, black voters and leaders are pressing for him to pick a black woman as his running mate.
Biden launched a committee last week to begin vetting possible candidates for the vice presidency, a process he has said will likely last through July. He has already committed to picking a woman.
But black voters and leaders say he needs to go further and pick a black woman.
They argue that Biden's success - and that of the Democratic Party as a whole - depends on black people turning out to vote in November. They want a tangible return for their loyalty, not just a thank you for showing up on Election Day.
"Black people want an acknowledgement of the many years of support they have given the Democratic Party," said Niambi Carter, a Howard University political science professor.
House Minority Whip Jim Clyburn, whose endorsement in South Carolina was widely credited with helping widen Biden's winning margin and start his avalanche of March primary victories, said "clearly" he would prefer a black woman. But he insisted he's not pushing Biden in that direction.
"I'm the father of three grown African American women. So naturally I prefer an African American woman, but it doesn't have to be," Clyburn said. "I've made that very clear." Biden has been unusually vocal about the people he would consider as running mates. He's referenced two black women, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic nominee for governor in Georgia. Other black women, including Rep. Val Demings of Florida and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, have also been mentioned.
But Biden is also thought to be considering several white women, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
President Donald Trump said his November opponent owes the spot to Warren, theorizing that Sen. Bernie Sanders "would have won every single state on Super Tuesday" if Warren had dropped out of the primary race earlier.
In an interview Monday with the New York Post, Trump dismissed Abrams while claiming responsibility for her defeat in the 2018 Georgia governor's race.
Zerlina Maxwell, a political analyst and former director of progressive media for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, said this is an opportunity for Biden to recognize the political force of black women.
"The Democratic nominee needs to make it completely clear that they understand the moment and that they understand that black women are the foundation of a successful Democratic Party at every level," Maxwell said.
Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of Black PAC, said black voters are looking for "authenticity." "When folks have talked to us about what they want in a candidate, it is someone who can relate to them," Shropshire said, noting the coronavirus's disparate impact on black Americans.
But she said that doesn't mean that a vice presidential nominee has to be a black woman.
"Having a black running mate checks that box for a lot of people, but I would also say in the same way that black voters weren't simply during the primary contest saying, 'Who's the black candidate?' I don't think black voters are doing that for the vice presidential choice either," she said, later adding the bottom line: "Ultimately, people want to win." Tharon Johnson, a prominent black strategist who worked for Barack Obama's two presidential campaigns, said Biden's focus should be on "energy," not necessarily on race.
