Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden declared on Monday that he’d be open to a Republican as his running mate should he win the nomination, though he was unable to come up with a specific name.
During a campaign stop in New Hampshire, the 77-year-old former vice president—who has been running on a platform that he can bridge the nation’s partisan divide—was asked by one woman about the possibility that he could lead a bipartisan ticket.
“Our 21-year-old son said the other night, ‘I wonder if Joe Biden would consider choosing a Republican as a running mate,’” the New Hampshire voter wondered.
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“The answer is I would, but I can’t think of one now,” Biden answered, adding: “You know, there’s some really decent Republicans that are out there still, but here’s the problem right now, with the well-known ones—they’ve got to step up.”
Biden, who has previously said he’d prefer to pick a woman and/or a person of color as his veep, went on to point out that there are “a lot of qualified women” and African-Americans to choose from.
“There really truly are,” he said. “There’s a plethora of really qualified people. Whomever I would pick were I fortunate enough to be your nominee, I’d pick somebody who was simpatico with me, who knew what I, what my priorities were and knew what I wanted to.”
This is far from the first time that a “unity” ticket has been discussed. Prior to selecting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, for instance, 2008 GOP nominee John McCain seriously considered picking former Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) as veep.
