72 percent of Democratic voters say it’s ‘important’ Biden VP pick be woman of color

Nearly three-fourths of Democratic voters surveyed in a new poll say that former Vice President Joe Biden should pick a woman of color as his running mate in November.

In the USA Today/Suffolk poll, 72 percent of surveyed Democrats said that it was “somewhat” or “very important” that Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, choose a woman of color to be his running mate. Only 26 percent said that it “not very” or “not at all” important.

Biden signaled months ago that he would pick a woman of color as his running mate, but his campaign has said that a decision won’t be made until around the beginning of August.

The main candidates for the job at this point are considered to be Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D), former United Nations ambassador Susan Rice and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).

Younger Democrats in the new poll, those under 25, view the issue as more important than older Democrats, with 85 percent saying that it was very or somewhat important. 

The survey of 345 Democrats, conducted from last Thursday through Monday, has a margin of error of 5.3 percentage points.