Now that Joe Biden has committed to naming a woman as his vice presidential candidate — and Bernie Sanders has responded that “in all likelihood,” he would, too — it is time for the way-too-early Democratic veepstakes.

Biden, who is on a roll in the primaries and has taken the lead in the delegate count, is getting plenty of advice. One person who probably carries a great deal of weight is South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, whose endorsement before the state’s primary last month pulled Biden’s campaign off life support.

“I’ll never tell you who I’m going to advise him,” Clyburn told Axios, “but I would advise him that we need to have a woman on the ticket, and I prefer an African American woman.”

California Sen. Kamala Harris, who is black, saw her name shoot straight to the top of the speculation list when Biden made his promise during Sunday night’s presidential debate. But she’s not the only one who would fit Clyburn’s preference, and there’s no shortage of other high-profile possibilities in the Democratic Party.

Here are some of the leading candidates and their advantages and disadvantages to the Democratic nominee’s November prospects:

Harris: There’s good reason the first-term California senator is high on everyone’s list of possible veeps. She’s a former presidential candidate and is used to the hot lights of the campaign. Plus, she has already been vetted by the national media, although she ended her campaign before voters could have their say.

Pros: Harris, 55, is a woman of color — her mother was born in India, her father in Jamaica — which could help Biden connect better with the party’s base. As a senator and former attorney general of the nation’s most populous state, she may be seen as more prepared than some to assume the top job. That’s something voters will be looking at this year more than ever, given that Biden, Sanders and President Trump are all in their 70s.

Cons: California is in the bag for any Democratic candidate in the November election, so Harris wouldn’t deliver a home-field advantage in a swing state. The only time she spiked in the polls as a presidential candidate was after she kneecapped Biden in a debate over his support for mandatory busing in the 1970s. She’s a former prosecutor, but Biden is trying to make voters forget he was one of the main proponents of the 1994 crime bill, which led former presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker to label him an “architect of mass incarceration.” She was all over the map on health care before ending her campaign, once calling for the end to private health insurance, then backing away.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar: The Minnesota senator’s 11th-hour endorsement of Biden after she suspended her campaign helped the former vice president win the Super Tuesday primary in Minnesota, a state Sanders won in 2016.

Pros: Her more moderate positions hew closely to Biden’s, particularly her support for a public option in health insurance. Klobuchar, 59, could help Democrats keep Minnesota, a state where Hillary Clinton barely beat Trump four years ago.

Cons: She’s the female Tim Kaine in terms of excitement level among the party’s base. The Virginia senator helped Hillary Clinton win that state in 2016, but that’s about it. A ticket of two white moderate-liberals isn’t going electrify progressives or voters of color.

Stacey Abrams: The Democratic base loves Abrams, 46, a former Georgia legislator who narrowly lost a 2018 election that would have made her the first African American woman to be elected governor in U.S. history.

Pros: Could put Georgia in play and help in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, all of which have cities with large African American populations. When she ran for governor, she was endorsed by Sanders and Barack Obama. When asked last fall to name someone he’d consider for a running mate, Biden said, “The woman who should have been the governor of Georgia.”

Cons: She’s only been a state legislator and has no experience in dealing with foreign policy or even national issues. While she has keen political skills, she hasn’t spent a sustained period in the national spotlight or had a national vetting.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: The second-term Massachusetts senator’s endorsement is the most coveted outside of any Democrat not named Obama.

Pros: She has a fervent base of mostly progressive supporters from her just-ended presidential campaign, and Biden needs help from the party’s left. Warren, 70, is a strong campaigner and would probably be seen as day-one ready to step into the Oval Office.

Cons: She didn’t attract voters of color during her presidential campaign, and her calls for “profound structural change” are a far cry from Biden’s more incremental approach. She doesn’t have a strong relationship with Biden, although his embrace last week of her proposal to have student loan debt be forgiven through personal bankruptcy proceedings is a sign they have been talking.

Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto: The Nevada senator is the first Latina to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

Pros: Cortez-Masto, 55, could help Biden with Latino voters, who have been slow to warm to him. As a former state attorney general and a first-term senator, she brings largely the same qualifications to the job as Harris.

Cons: She’s largely unknown outside her state and unlike Harris, who entered the Senate at the same time, hasn’t made a national name for herself or been vetted nationally. And Nevada, which is already trending Democratic, is no longer one of the states most up for grabs in a presidential election.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: First-term governor is becoming a favorite of party leaders, who had her deliver the Democratic response to Trump’s State of the Union address in January.

Pros: Whitmer, 48, could help the nominee land Michigan, which Clinton narrowly lost to Trump. It’s a must-have state for the Democratic nominee this year.

Cons: She is the Michigan version of Klobuchar, hasn’t been vetted nationally and doesn’t have national or foreign policy experience. She’s unknown outside Michigan and wouldn’t excite voters of color.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli