A new committee is pushing for former first lady Michelle Obama to join the ticket of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as his vice president.
The committee called “Draft Michelle Obama” touted Obama as the best choice both to help the former vice president defeat President Trump in November as well as the best to help Biden lead the country if he wins.
“The Committee to Draft Michelle Obama firmly believes that Ms. Obama will not only benefit the Democratic ticket this November but also help lead this country to be more just and caring,” the committee said in a statement released Monday.
Biden has said on several occasions that he would be willing to pick Obama for the spot.
The committee, which filed with the Federal Election Commission on April 26, said its goal is to show Obama how many people want her to accept Biden’s informal request for her to serve.
“Immediately after Vice President Biden announces his choice, we will focus on supporting the Democratic ticket. We first want to assure that Ms. Obama sees how many people would like to see her accept Biden’s ask to be his running mate, our encouragement for her decision alone to make,” the committee said in its statement.
Drew Zuckerman, a spokesman for the committee, told The Hill that the group is backed by a number of prominent Democratic fundraisers including Mack Wilbourn, Sid Topol and Nadine Hack.
The committee aims to generate media attention over a potential Obama vice presidential candidacy over the next couple of weeks, Zuckerman said.
Asked about choosing the former first lady as his running mate last month, Biden told Pittsburgh’s KDKA he would “take her in a heartbeat.”
Although, he underscored his comments with doubt that Obama is interested in the spot.
“She’s brilliant. She knows the way around. She is a really fine woman. The Obamas are great friends,” Biden said.
But, he added, “I don’t think she has any desire to live near the White House again.”
Similarly, Valerie Jarrett, a former Obama White House senior adviser, also said the former first lady isn’t interested in the spot. Jarrett told The Hill last month there’s “no chance” Michelle Obama will be Biden’s running mate.
“The reason why I’m being so unequivocal is that there just simply has never been a time when she’s expressed an interest in running for office,” Jarrett said in an interview with The Hill. “She’s not demurring here. She’s not being hard to get. She doesn’t want the job.”
Biden has committed to picking a woman as his running mate. Other potential candidates for the position have said they would accept if asked to run, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), one of Biden’s former presidential primary challengers, and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), another one of Biden’s former primary challengers, said she would be “honored” if she were being considered.
Warren is Democratic voters’ top choice for Biden to pick as a vice president, according to a CBS News poll released Sunday.
Seventy-one percent of Democratic voters said Warren should be considered, based on the poll. Harris ranked second, at 59 percent, with Abrams in third at 50 percent, based on the poll.
Michelle Obama was not listed among potential picks but was asked about in a stand-alone question. The poll found 64 percent of Democrats would like to see her on the ticket if she were in the running, according to the same CBS poll.