# Joe Biden doesn't make it 4 years: who is Kamala's Veep? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 20, 2021, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939 "2021-01-20T06:32:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/41 "2021-02-22T01:03:44Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Harris would want Newsom, god save us. Both on the ticket can’t, in practice, be from the same state, due to an electoral college rule, [especially if the state has a lot of electoral votes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/president-vp-different-states/). If Biden had died, or was ill, a lot of voters would want a ticket that honors his legacy. Harris would probably get the nomination and should pick a normally qualified (current/former senator or governor) non-Californian who she personally likes. Being a moderate, I like Gina Raimondo. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/42 "2021-02-22T01:20:34Z")
This has been discussed elsewhere, and I’m too lazy to go look for it, but since the emergence of the current two-party system the President’s party loses seats in the House in midterm elections something like 90% of the time. And that’s compounded this year, where Republicans control state governments that will redistrict a significant majority of House seats. And they only need to net five seats to take control. Also, the party “being divided” or having “their house in order” is overrated. Republicans in 2010 were a mess, torn apart by a Tea Party insurgency that many feared would make them unelectable. They still romped home to a 63 seat gain on election night. Nothing’s impossible, but the deck is heavily stacked toward Republicans in 2022. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/43 "2021-02-22T02:45:33Z")
Thrice. Herbert Hoover’s vice president was 3/8 Native American. That is one reason why Ms. Harris’ ethnicity is described as South Asian and not Indian. > **[Charles Curtis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Curtis)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was an American attorney and Republican politician from Kansas who served as the 31st vice president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 under Herbert Hoover. He had served as the Senate Majority Leader from 1924 to 1929. A member of the Kaw Nation born in the Kansas Territory, Curtis was the first Native American and first person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of t... ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/44 "2021-02-22T03:03:31Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > If Senator Warren resigns her seat to take another office, he’ll appoint her replacement to finish her term. No, that’s not the case. [State law](https://malegislature.gov/laws/generallaws/parti/titleviii/chapter54/section140) is that if a Senate seat falls vacant, the governor appoints a temporary replacement, but a special election has to be held between 145 & 160 days for a Senator to serve the remainder of the term. So at most, you’d get 5 months of a Republican Senator. Plus, given the shenanigans that got us to the current law, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the legislature removed his power to appoint a temporary replacement if it looked like a Senator was about to leave office early. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/45 "2021-02-22T03:15:19Z")
It’s hard to keep up with how Massachusetts fills Senate vacancies. And now that I think about it, it’s a little ironic that they initially changed the law back in 2004 to completely remove the power of the governor to fill a vacancy. That governor? Mitt Romney. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/46 "2021-02-22T03:24:08Z")
Yep. And they gave the temporary replacement power back to Democratic governor Deval Patrick back when Sen. Kennedy was ill. At which point it spectacularly backfired - the Commonwealth elected Republican Scott Brown, eliminating the Democrats filibuster-proof majority right when Obamacare was being negotiated. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/47 "2021-02-22T04:19:36Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > Thinking about this more, I’m not sure if Plaskett would be eligible for the Vice Presidency. The Constitutional requirement is that a VP has to be eligible to become President, and a President has to be a U.S. citizen (check), at least 35 years old (check), and “been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.” It’s that last one that I’m sure would generate furious debate. Does being a resident of the USVI (an unincorporated territory) make one a resident “within the United States”? Nothing in that clause says the candidate had to have been a resident for the fourteen years immediately prior to becoming president. Herbert Hoover was born and raised in the US, graduating from Stanford, so he had more than 14 years residence. However, he then took a job with a British mining corporation and lived in Australia, China and Britain. He was living in London up until 1916, when he returned to live in the States. He was elected President in 1928, 12 years later. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/48 "2021-02-22T04:25:21Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Both on the ticket can’t, in practice, be from the same state, due to an electoral college rule, [especially if the state has a lot of electoral votes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/president-vp-different-states/). That didnt stop Bush/Cheney. Cheney just changed his registration back to Wyoming. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/49 "2021-02-22T04:30:24Z")
Good point! Looking at Plaskett’s Wiki page, it looks like she was born and raised in New York, so would easily meet the residency requirement. Interesting question, though, whether someone who lived in a U.S. territory their whole lives would be eligible to run for President. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2021, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/50 "2021-02-22T05:54:18Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > That didnt stop Bush/Cheney. Cheney just changed his registration back to Wyoming. Not really an option for Newsom and Harris 🙂 . Both born in the Bay Area and Newsom never really left (Harris at least went to undergrad at Howard). I’m sure Newsom would get some due consideration just based on his high profile\* and their purportedly good relationship. It would be properly politic of her. But I really, really doubt he’d get the nod - Harris would get serious push back from the party if she went that route and it would likely go over poorly both in the primary and in the general. For some reason people are a wee bit bigoted towards us supposedly politically wacky Californians and two on one ticket would be courting disaster with those stodgy MOR voters (what’s left of them). One is bad enough 😆. \*This is assuming Newsom doesn’t get recalled. But I consider that highly unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/51 "2021-02-25T01:10:26Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > This latest scandal with the under-reporting of Covid nursing-home deaths wouldn’t help either. Or the sexual harassment allegations. It has all the makings of a pile-on from his own party. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/52 "2021-02-25T05:25:44Z")
The legal issues are easily overcome – the Constitutional requirement only applies to elections, so a President Harris could nominate a fellow Californian without any problem. Then Newsom could rent a house in Alexandria, get a VA drivers license, buy a “Washington Football Franchise” hat, or whatever else you need to do to establish residency. But I agree two Californians on the ticket is ludicrous. VP candidates generally don’t make a tremendous amount of difference to the success of the ticket, but a President Harris would need every advantage she could get to stitch together an electoral college majority. “Two Liberal Californians” isn’t a dream ticket anywhere but California. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939/53 "2021-02-25T18:05:59Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > “Two Liberal Californians” isn’t a dream ticket anywhere but California. It isn’t a dream ticket out here. Newsom is getting reamed over some stupid decisions he’s made lately, and the recall people are growing at a steady rate. Not enough to actually get him recalled, but he isn’t the most popular person in California these days by a long shot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-biden-doesnt-make-it-4-years-who-is-kamalas-veep/930939.md?page=2)