WASHINGTON — Influential Black political organizers and activists are ramping up pressure on presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden to select a Black woman as his vice presidential running mate after days of national unrest over police brutality and the killing of George Floyd.
“We are past this just being about a VP pick,” said LaTosha Brown, cofounder of the Black Lives Matter Fund, calling Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis “a turning point for the presidential election.” "We need a unifying voice, a voice who will have appeal across the political spectrum and who will be able to speak to the pain and anger of Black America right now.”
Biden’s selection was always going to be consequential. Now it’s even more so.
The vetting process has been taking place in the midst of a pandemic that has ravaged Black, Latino, and Asian Pacific communities, and many believe Biden’s choice will be crucial to energizing key portions of the electorate that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton failed to excite in 2016. But the latest crisis over racism and police brutality has upped the stakes.
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