Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders followed in Sen. Cory Booker's footsteps on Tuesday night by indicating he would consider a woman running mate should he win the party's nomination.

"I think we would look for somebody who is maybe not of the same gender that I am, and maybe someone who might be a couple of years younger than me, and somebody who can take the progressive banner as vice president and carry it all over this county to help us with our agenda, and help us to rally the American people," Sanders told The Young Turks, a left-leaning media organization.

The 2020 Democratic primary field of declared contenders is already one of the most diverse to take shape in the party's history. But the independent senator from Vermont, who on Tuesday morning announced his second White House bid, is not the first male presidential hopeful to float the possibility of a female vice presidential pick.

“We have such a great field of leaders, I think that you'll rarely see a Democratic ticket anymore without gender diversity, race diversity,” Booker, D-N.J., told MSNBC last week. “I think it's something we should have. I'm not going to box myself in, but should I become [the presidential nominee], you know I'll be looking to women first.”

Sanders' push for a more balanced ticket comes after his 2016 campaign came under fire for its treatment of women. A number of former staffers called on the three-term senator in a January letter to roll out a formal policy dealing with sexual misconduct complaints.

In the aftermath, Sanders met with roughly two dozen former staffers to address their claims that they had been sexually harassed during his 2016 presidential campaign. He has said he was unaware of the alleged harassment and apologized to the former staffers, pledging to “do better” next time he runs for office.

Despite the criticism, Sanders' second bid seems to be off to a strong start. His team self-reported Tuesday evening that it had raised in excess of $3.3 million from more than 120,000 donors, meaning he already qualifies to appear at the Democratic National Committee's official debates under the body's new criteria.

His announcement comes after mounting speculation he would enter the race after vowing to do so if he believed he was the Democrats' best hope of defeating Trump, consistently posting strong results in early polls. Sanders told CBS on Tuesday morning he had a better chance of success next year than in 2016 when he was vying against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"When you're running against one person you know you gotta have 51 percent of the votes. Now who knows what you need, 30, 35 percent," he said. "But bottom line for me is I think it is absolutely imperative that Donald Trump be defeated, because I think it is unacceptable and un-American, to be frank with you, that we have a president who is a pathological liar. And it gives me no pleasure to say that, but it's true."