The letter, signed by black women working in both the public and private sectors, lists several potential candidates: former Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams, Cap. Karen Bass, Rev. Val Demings, Ohio, Marcia Fudge, California Sen. Harris, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
The letter reads: “We urge you to take this historic opportunity to select a black woman who will fight for the issues that matter most to the American people and help achieve a decisive victory and a successful Biden presidency.”
She says the women on the list “have the experience, qualifications and principled core values of a true leader that would make the right partner help catapult the Democrats to victory in November”.
The letter is the latest sign of public pressure that Biden and his campaign are facing to choose the female color that will be on the Democratic map in November.
Among the signatories are actresses Vanessa Williams, Latanya Richardson Jackson and Pauletta Washington, former president and president of the American Tennis Federation Katrina Adams, former editor-in-chief of Essence magazine Susan Taylor, and the first wife of African-American president Spelman College, Johnnett Cole.
Abrams, who said she would be honored to accept the position and become a “great running wife,” told ABC “The View” this week that “we need a map that reflects America’s diversity.”
Abrams said, “women of color, especially black women, are the strongest part of the Democratic Party, the most loyal, but that loyalty is not just how we vote, but how we do it and if we want to signal that they do it we will continue not to reach only certain segments of our community, but to the whole country, then we need a map that reflects the diversity of America. “
South Carolina envoy Jim Clyburn, an influential congressman and the third highest Democrat in the House of Representatives, also said he favors Biden electing a black woman. Clyburn’s impetus prompted Biden to a decisive victory in a critical South Carolina competition, which revived his campaign and put Biden on the path to winning a Democratic nomination.
“I’m not telling anyone that I think it has to be that way. I think that’s exactly what I like,” said Clyburn, who did not directly advise the former vice president on his election.
Civil rights icon and envoy from Georgia John Lewis, one of the most hated African-American members of Congress, called on Biden to choose a woman who reflects the country.
“It would be good to have a woman in color. It would be good to have a woman,” Lewis said. “It would be good if a woman looked like the rest of America – smart, talented, a fighter, a warrior. And we have a lot of capable women, some black, white, Latin American, Asian American, Indian. And you think the time is long gone for the White House to look like all of America. “
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Michigan Bishop Gretchen Whitmer, Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto and New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan were also mentioned in the former vice president’s conversations as potential candidates.
Earlier this month, Biden said he expects a group to review potential candidates for vice president to be formed by May 1st and that the list of candidates will be reduced sometime in July.
Only two women were candidates for vice president of the big party in the United States: former Alaska government Sarah Palin in 2008 and former New York deputy Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.
CNN’s Arlette Saenz and DJ Judd contributed to this report.
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