More than half of black voters in eight states have said they would be more enthusiastic or more likely to vote for Joe Biden if he picked a black woman as his running mate.

The information comes from a new poll conducted for the advocacy group BlackPAC by Politico.

The poll concerns the key battleground states of Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

The research found that 38 per cent of black voters who already plan to vote for Mr Biden, would be more enthusiastic about voting for him if he picked a black woman as his running mate.

Of those who are already planning to vote for him, 27 per cent said that the decision would not change much for them.​

Another 17 per cent per cent said that Mr Biden choosing a black woman as his running mate would make them more likely to vote for him.

A further 5 per cent said it would make them more likely to go out and vote, but 1 per cent said it would make them more likely to vote for Donald Trump.

In a live TV debate with Bernie Sanders in March, Mr Biden pledged to pick a woman as his running mate for the 2020 presidential election.

“If I’m elected president, my cabinet, my administration, will look like the country, and I commit that I will in fact appoint and pick a woman as vice president,” he said.

“There are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow,” he added.

Earlier in the month, John Lewis, a representative for Georgia, who is well known for his civil rights activism in the 1960s, urged Joe Biden to pick a woman of colour as his running mate.

Mr Lewis told reporters before announcing his endorsement of Mr Biden, that “it would be good to have a woman of colour” as the US vice president.

Vermont senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Joe Biden for president of the United States on Monday, less than a week after ending his own campaign for the Democratic nomination.