Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has picked his running mate and informed his top advisers, with an announcement possible as early as Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the process.
Biden was expected to announce his selection this week and he finished his interviews in the last few days.
The announcement will be followed by a grassroots fundraiser with Biden and his vice presidential candidate. There will also likely be an in-person event with Biden and the pick, as advance staff are setting up at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington.
Leading contenders for the vice presidential nod include California Senator Kamala Harris, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, California Representative Karen Bass, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth.
Biden promised in early spring that he would pick a woman. Since the racial justice protests started in June, he has been under pressure to pick a Black woman, which helped propel Harris and Rice toward the top of the list in addition to their other qualifications.
Earlier Tuesday, the Biden campaign announced a team of aides who will staff his eventual running mate as he prepares to announce his selection of a vice presidential nominee. The list includes longtime Biden insiders, veterans of former President Barack Obama’s White House and more recent campaign hires.
Even before the pick was announced, the Biden campaign is rebutting attacks from President Donald Trump and his allies.
“The Trump campaign has already discredited their attacks before we’re even out of the gate by announcing that regardless of who Joe Biden nominates, they’ll strain to depict the VP candidate as ‘radical’ — just like they’ve tried and failed to do with Biden himself for months. In other words, they’ve flat out admitted they will lie.”