Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) pushed back on the idea that Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate must be a white man and called concerns over an all-female presidential ticket “baloney,” in an interview Monday on “CBS Mornings.”
“I don’t agree with that,” said Whitmer, a co-chair of the Harris campaign, when asked about the idea that Harris must pick a white man to join her ticket.
Whitmer drew on her own experience running in Michigan as evidence against that argument.
“I’ll tell you this,” Whitmer continued. “In Michigan, myself, my secretary of state, my attorney general – all the chief executives in Michigan – are women, and every one of us was told there may be too many women on the ticket. Baloney. We’ve proved that wrong in the swingiest of swing states.”
The interview comes as anticipation builds ahead of Harris’s expected announcement of her running mate, which Whitmer said in the same interview she expects will happen within the next six or seven days.
Whitmer is the only woman among the group of Democrats frequently mentioned as possible contenders for Harris’s VP pick. The rest are white men. Whitmer has repeatedly stated, however, she does not intend to seek the No. 2 spot. She said Monday she is not undergoing the standard vetting process.
“The Vice President has got a great group of people from whom she’s going to pick her running mate, and I know that I can be the best ally on the ground in Michigan as a co-chair of this campaign as well,” Whitmer said.
The Democratic National Committee said last week it plans to start a virtual roll-call vote to pick its presidential nominee on Aug. 1 and expects Harris to select a running mate by Aug. 7.
Harris is the only major contender for the party’s nomination, and she has support from well over the 1,976 delegates needed to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press survey.
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