You know… it’s the patriarchy.
My immediate reaction when I read your post was Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
I think the prospect of a non-white woman elected to the Senate from Chicago (I mean Illinois), who served in a traditionally-masculine role of military pilot, being a heartbeat from the presidency AND on the same ballot as Harris would prompt an uncontrollable reaction by MAGA/Q-Anon/Freedom Caucus loons to go ballistic in their rants against Duckworth. They’d make the crap thrown at Rep. Ocasio-Cortez just for being elected to the House look like polite discourse by comparison!
I believe that Duckworth having been a military pilot who lost limbs in service to the nation would make her a target for the incel/men’s rights/ProudBoy/tan-your-perineum virulently misogynistic nutballs. Conversely, non-crazy folks who lean conservative and tend to vote GOP but aren’t rootin’ tootin’ fire eaters and don’t have the visceral reaction to women in the military that many toxic-masculinity types do, would be disgusted and repulsed by the rhetoric hurled at a wounded warrior like Duckworth. Much more disgust and repulsion, I suspect, than homophobic slurs aimed at Buttigieg would elicit.
I could see the “at long last, have you no sense of decency?” line having a comeback as a meme.
Just like they were disgusted and repulsed by the rhetoric Trump and his supporters hurled at the Gold Star families back in 2016?
Face it: There will never be a "have you no sense of decency?” moment with this crowd.
You just want Birthers to have their heads explode trying to figure out how someone born in Thailand is a natural-born citizen.
Her father was an American citizen
What about AOC to pull in the progressive caucus? She will be 35 on Election Day.
I’m not sure how selecting Abrams or AOC as a running mate to “appeal to progressives” is going to help a President Harris who (in the scenario in the OP) is polling well behind the GOP nominee. I doubt there would be armies of progressives sitting out the election. Even if they don’t love Harris, they will turn out to vote against Trump/DeSantis/whoever the Republicans put up. Appealing to progressives is also unlikely to help her much in the states where she’s likely to be in the most trouble – PA, MI and WI. Assuming the rest of the map plays out like 2020, she can afford to lose two of those three.
And, for that matter, her ancestors, on her father’s side, have historically been members of the American military, dating back to the Revolutionary War and before.
Maybe not armies, but enough to sway an election. According to Pew research Ctr:
Democrats are more likely to be non-voters: 20% of Democrats say they are not registered to vote, compared with 14% of Republicans
29% of self-described liberals saying they are not registered to vote compared with 20% of moderates and 17% of conservatives.
Four-in-ten 18-29 year-olds are not registered to vote, double the proportion of 30-49-year-olds and nearly three times greater than those ages 50 or older.
Whites continue to be disproportionally represented in the voting booth: 37% of whites are regular voters, compared with 29% of non-whites, including 31% of blacks and 24% of all Hispanics.
IMO, those stats altogether point at a young, disaffected block of would-be democrat voters whose personal politics probably skew progressive.
Well, that settles it! But if even one of those Duckworths had been Loyalists……
I’m the other way around. I think you need to shore up your own coalition, because gains from moderate swing voters are going to be relatively random & small.
I think Duckworth is likable, but could be seen as another neoliberal; and military service doesn’t count for as much now, in a nation of proudly, stubbornly, draft-dodging cowards.
Abrams is basically Georgia-based and would be running on pure charisma, not credibility as someone ready to be a President.
But someone from the progressive end of the party might work. The problem is that there are so few of those in any office that it would be seen as taking away a good Congressperson (or whatever) to stick that person in a ceremonial role.
So… yeah, maybe just tapping Duckworth is the smart play.
The kremlins propaganda of “both parties are the same- corrupt, so there no use voting” has been working.