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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Poll: Voters Want Biden to Pick Experienced Running Mate

They're less interested in whether the vice presidential pick is a woman or from the progressive wing if the Democratic Party.

(CN) — Voters want former Vice President Joe Biden to choose an experienced running mate in his bid for the White House but don’t necessarily care if the person is a woman or a person of color.

According to the Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday, two-thirds of surveyed voters said Biden should choose a running mate with legislative and executive experience.

But they don’t care as much about the Democratic ticket in November being diverse.

Only 29% of voters said it was important for Biden to choose a woman as his vice president, while 22% said it was important he choose a person of color.

About 8 in 10 Democrats said it was important Biden’s running mate have political experience. Half of Democrats also want Biden’s running mate to be younger than him.

Biden has said his vice presidential pick will be a woman, with political analysts speculating top contenders could be Stacey Abrams, a former minority leader in the Georgia House who ran for governor in 2018, or any number of female presidential candidates who dropped out of the race in recent weeks.

Even though the poll was conducted right after Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race — an announcement that made Biden the presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee — Democrats were slightly less concerned (41%) with Biden’s running mate being more liberal than him.

Sanders threw his support behind Biden’s campaign Monday, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren officially endorsed the campaign Wednesday. The former presidential candidates represent the more progressive wing of the Democratic party and have pushed Biden’s campaign further to the left.

Just one day after Sanders dropped out of the race, Biden proposed lowering the Medicare age to 60 and forgiving student loan debt for low-and middle-income borrowers who attended public colleges and universities.

Biden said the policy proposal was an attempt to secure the votes of Sanders’ supporters.

“Senator Sanders and his supporters can take pride in their work in laying the groundwork for these ideas, and I’m proud to adopt them,” Biden said at the time.

The duo were joined by former President Barack Obama, who endorsed Biden on Tuesday in a video posted on YouTube.

Warren is one of the contenders to be Biden’s running mate, edging out former presidential candidates Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Amy Klobuchar in terms of favorability among polled Democrats.

While Warren leads in net favorability among Democrats, the Massachusetts senator also leads among self-identified liberals, black voters and voters with an unfavorable view of President Donald Trump.

Klobuchar enjoyed higher marks in the most categories overall, however, polling higher among all voters and in every region of the U.S.

The Minnesota senator also enjoys stronger support among white voters, independents, Republicans, moderates and conservatives, and those with a favorable view of Trump.

California Senator Harris had similar marks to Warren among Latino voters but was less popular than Klobuchar on the West Coast.

The poll also found lesser-known women in the national political sphere — including Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada — may be “blank slates” to voters who may view women who ran against Biden unfavorably.

The survey of 1,990 registered voters was conducted April 10-12. It has a 2% margin of error.

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