Gov. Whitmer's Twitter page
Joe Biden with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was among Joe Biden’s final four candidates for vice president, according to a New York Times report.
Not bad for a first-term governor who had not planned to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary election.
The other finalists were former National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and California Sen. Kamala Harris.
A political moderate, Whitmer “appealed to Mr. Biden’s political and ideological instincts, but selecting her also would have yielded an all-white ticket,” The Times wrote.
By Monday, Biden had made his choice. On Tuesday, he talked to the runners-up before placing a video call to Harris, asking, “You ready to go to work?”
Biden and Whitmer forged a strong relationship after the governor decided to endorse the former vice president just five days before the primary election in Michigan. That same day, on March 5, Biden’s campaign announced that Whitmer was one of four national co-chairs.
In the spring, when Whitmer was among about a dozen candidates for vice president, she notified Biden that she did not want to be his running mate because she believed he should choose a Black woman, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. But Biden pressed, telling her in a phone call in mid-June that he still wanted her to advance to the final round of vetting, and she obliged.
Whitmer is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention on Monday.
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