Poll: Voters prioritize experienced VP for Biden over gender, race

[RandySF]

Voters overwhelmingly want to see Joe Biden choose a vice presidential nominee with governing experience, and they’re far less invested in whether he chooses a woman or a person of color as his running mate, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday.

The survey — conducted just after Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2020 presidential race, making Biden the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee — found that about two-thirds of voters said it was important Biden choose a running mate with legislative and executive experience. While Biden has vowed to select a woman to join him on the ticket, only 29 percent of voters said it was important for Biden to choose a woman, while 22 percent said it was important that he choose a person of color.

Among Democrats, about 8 in 10 said it was important that Biden’s vice-presidential selection have legislative and executive experience. Meanwhile, about half of Democrats said it’s important for Biden’s running mate to be younger than him (77 years old) and for his pick to be a woman.

Fewer Democrats say it’s significant that they be more liberal than Biden (41 percent), a person of color (36 percent) or religious (31 percent).



https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/15/poll-biden-vice-president-experience-187056

[Under The Radar]

1. There are a few that touch all of those bases

[leftieNanner]

2. But if it's another old white male

I will be pissed!!

[Bucky]

3. I wish we could get to the point where we quit treating this as the choice

It's not tokenism to say we need to broaden the experience-base that our party brings to national leadership, that we draw leadership for a pluralistic nation from a variety of communities.

[quickesst]

4. I have always....

.... held the opinion that the majority has, but Joe Biden locked himself into choosing a woman as his running mate. If it were not to happen, I think the majority would forgive him as long as that majority approved of his choice. I certainly would.

[lame54]

5. It HAS to be a woman...

Biden already went there

Follow through is crucial

[pinkstarburst]

6. I think the two key things

to take from this are:

1) Biden has already committed to selecting a woman. He can't really walk back from that now without sending a HORRIBLE message to half the voters in the country. No matter if he chose a great male candidate, the message would be: there were zero qualified women in the entire United States. Not a good look. He'll choose a woman.

2) Voters want someone with *extensive* experience given Biden's age. That is their number one issue. For all the people who keep posting that it doesn't matter--it clearly does. It matters more than race, sex, moderate vs/ liberal, religion, age. And it may rule out a few names. Which is okay. There are plenty of well-qualified candidates to choose from. The last thing we need is for Biden to pick someone who the voters see as less qualified and have that affect turnout in November (even if they happen to check other boxes.)

[Dem4Life1102]

7. Don't buy it

Experience has never mattered and never will. People want to sound responsible and that things like race and sex don't matter to them so they'll answer Experience when asked. But in the end that is what will influence their vote.

[LizBeth]

8. A woman. So done with being told to sit down.

[Azathoth]

9. Biden is in McCain territory age-wise

He definitely needs to pick someone that voters can envision taking over in an emergency. That needs to be his top criterion.