Exponents Magazine has decided to let six of our current contributors and editors make the argument for their preferred Vice-Presidential pick. Below are arguments in favor of Gretchen Whitmer, Elizabeth Warren, Catherine Cortez Masto, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Tammy Duckworth.

Whitmer will Deliver the Votes

Tom Fish

When thinking about whom Joe Biden’s running mate should be, a word keeps on coming up in my mind: tipping point. The tipping point state is the state that gives the winner the victory if every state is lined up by ideology. In 2016, the tipping point state was either Wisconsin or Pennsylvania, depending on how you run the numbers. One state more conservative than Wisconsin in 2016 was Michigan. This leads to a simple fact: there is one clear choice to be Biden’s running mate – Gretchen Whitmer.

Gretchen Whitmer is the current governor of Michigan. Previously she served in the Michigan House of Representatives, Michigan Senate, and as an interim county prosecutor after the original officeholder was arrested. She identifies as a progressive democrat who can work across party lines, like Biden. In 2018, she easily won the democratic primary as a non-Medicare For All candidate and then stomped her republican challenger by 10 points in the general. Currently, she has a 66% approval rating within her state and is well liked by politicians across party lines in Michigan. The road to a democrat in the White House runs through Michigan.

Looking at the 2020 map, Biden need to flip Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. While the home state bump is a myth, Whitmer has a roadmap for winning in those three states: run on tangible issues not ideals or character. Her 2018 win was on the back of a simple idea, fixing the state’s roads. Having Whitmer on the ticket would push Biden into a similar winning territory.

2020 in Joe Biden’s race to win. If he keeps his hand on the plow and runs an issues-based campaign, he will win. If the campaign devolves into purity politics and elite signaling, Biden will fall. Other contenders would let Biden run a Hillary-Esque campaign that is unattached from the struggles of voters and slips into the New York Times opinion page fodder about character, Whitmer would bolt the campaign to real on the ground issues.

Warren Complements Biden’s Strengths

Keith Robben

There are three things to look for when selecting a VP pick: what electoral advantages do they bring to the table, what political advantages do they bring to the table, and would they make a good president?

If you believe that, in order to win the general, what Joe Biden needs most is Democratic Party unity, then nobody can do better than Elizabeth Warren. However, the strongest case for Warren comes on the political end.

One (quite legitimate) fear many on the left and center-left have is that Biden holds a naive belief that he will be able to get the GOP to work with him in congress. Such a belief may cause him to compromise away key legislative goals too easily, and thus squander a democratic presidential term. Warren could act as a corrective to this, because nobody in their right mind believes that she thinks the GOP will operate in good faith. As VP she could advise Biden against an over-reliance on trying to gain Republican support and could use her experience in the Senate to effectively lobby in Congress for the administration’s goals. In addition, Warren’s relentless focus on a structural analysis of the perverse institutions and incentives which plague our politics is something neoliberals should cheer for. A Biden administration with Warren as VP would be a force to be reckoned with.

Finally, Warren has the experience and temperament needed in order to be a good president. In addition, her love of policy and attention to detail should warm the hearts of many neoliberals. To put it bluntly, if Warren was president now, tens of thousands of Americans wouldn’t have died from COVID-19. In fact, we’d probably be out on the world stage leading the fight to eradicate the virus for good.

Cortez Masto’s Policy Prowess and Experience

Tom Spencer

The basic role of a VP is to take over as the role of President, if worst is to come. Indeed, this has happened more and more in recent years as we saw with Lyndon Johnson and George H.W. Bush. Thus, the most important thing for a VP is to have the experience sufficient to be a President. Masto has that experience. She has served successfully as Attorney General, now as Senator for Nevada and currently sits as the Chair of the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee. This experience has prepared Masto for the highest of offices if that time is to come.

However, several of the potential candidates have sufficient experience. What separates Masto from the bunch is that she ticks all the right boxes in terms of policies. This is especially important post-Cheney where VP’s now have a lot more power over policies. Masto has consistently defended sensible neoliberal policies on the environment, foreign policy, immigration, and cannabis. Indeed, she has consistently campaigned for green jobs, attacked Trump’s appalling record foreign relations, the abolition of ICE and federal legalization of marijuana. Overall, Catherine Cortez Masto just doesn’t seem to have any red flags, she has consistently campaigned for sensible liberal values, and therefore she seems to be the best pick for Biden’s Vice President.

Harris can go on the Attack

Henry Kelly

Despite her earlier disagreements with Joe Biden, tensions have since cooled and now Kamala Harris would be an ideal VP pick for Joe Biden. Plus, she has already expressed interest in the position. There’s obviously a ton of reasons she would be a great pick, but think it’s fair to start with the obvious: she’s black.

With black turnout situated to be crucial to Biden’s election hopes, Kamala Harris could help drive that turnout, and might even improve his standing with the Democratic base. Further, Kamala could help appeal to women in the Democratic base, who might be less excited about an old white male at the top of the ticket. Obviously, other politicians fit this bill, but Kamala has the advantage of having campaigned in the primary and being a sitting senator, both of which would help her drive turnout.

On top of that crucial advantage, Kamala also had a platform that would gel nicely with Biden’s moderate one, alleviating concerns about picking someone too far to his left and make the party messaging consistent. Meanwhile, her focus on Criminal Justice Reform might help bring more left-wing Democratic voters into the fold (and should appeal to neoliberals!), without alienating swing voters the way Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders might as a VP pick. Additionally, with the Democratic primary behind her, Kamala’s prosecutor past likely won’t be a liability—it’s an unlikely vector of attack from the GOP.

And finally, as her first debate with Biden demonstrated, Kamala is great at going on the attack, which will serve the ticket well both against Trump and in the VP debate. Her background as a prosecutor will help the Democrats run a more aggressive campaign, and let’s be honest, Trump gives her a lot to work with. In Harris, we have a VP candidate who can help deliver the election and take down Trump in the process—what’s not to like?

Klobuchar’s got Grit

Dylan Meisner

Joe Biden needs a Vice President who liberal-minded Americans can feel confident to perform one main task– step in, at the drop of a hat, as President if, God forbid, Joe Biden can no longer continue in the position.

Amy Klobuchar is clearly the superior choice for that role among the available options. Given that Biden has publicly pledged to nominate a woman to serve as VP, that woman should be chosen for their record in the field of politics in which the President has the most power– foreign policy.

Of her entire record, it is in the realm of foreign policy in which Klobuchar is the most impressive, especially as it relates to the issues and threats facing America moving forward. She has identified Iran and China as the two greatest threats to American security interests – both eminently correct choices. She is also emphatically supportive of NATO and its mission– particularly as it relates to the security of Ukraine, Georgia and the Baltic States. The Obama/Biden administration showed a very lackluster response to the Russian invasion of Eastern Ukraine, and she has advocated doing more to bolster Ukrainian security.

Her record in the recent past is nothing short of impressive– a key aspect of her seminal 2006 Senate run was her opposition to the Iraq War, but she is no isolationist by any means — she supports establishing a no-fly zone in Syria and also supported President Trump’s justified 2017 bombings in Syria against the Assad regime. She was also instrumental in the 2014 re-opening of Cuba, a niche but nonetheless necessary action that shows her competence in the realm of foreign diplomacy.

In terms of personality, it will be necessary, particularly in the Vice-Presidential debate, to choose someone who will have the grit to challenge Mike Pence on policy issues while not coming off as cruel or harsh to voters. It is in this regard that Amy Klobuchar is at her strongest– her affable, Midwestern-nice attitude has gone over well with voters for years as has her ability to be confrontational but not offensive in a debate setting.

What’s this Duckworth? A Whole lot

Evan Jenkins

With the oldest candidate in US history heading the ticket, the choice of Democratic vice-presidential nominee will be more important than ever, and Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois is the complete package.

She’s a disabled woman of color, a working mother who became the first US senator to give birth in office. But she’s also a decorated veteran from the Midwest, someone who stacks up well head-to-head with Vice President Pence’s heartland bona fides. Her biracial, binational upbringing and broad coalitional appeal have drawn obvious comparisons to another former Illinois junior senator, Barack Obama. With the country mired in a pandemic and the economy going off the rails, Obama-era nostalgia will be a big draw, and a Biden-Duckworth ticket will provide a major dose of it.

Duckworth’s Asian-American identity is also a big point in her favor. Asian-Americans are a fast-growing demographic, particularly in some key swing states. Asian-Americans, along with Hispanics, have traditionally lagged behind white and black voters in turnout. As Biden proved in the primaries, he does not need any help turning out black voters. But Asian-Americans have not been courted nearly as heavily as blacks and Hispanics, so there is a great deal of potential upside in solidifying their place in the Democratic coalition. So not only would Duckworth prove a valuable asset in 2020, but she would also provide a strong electoral foundation for the future of the Democratic Party.