It’s a name no one – well almost no one – is talking about in the Biden Veepstakes: Former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano.
Biden has already committed to picking a woman, but most of the female contenders are lacking two things Biden desperately needs: executive experience and swing state clout.
Jonathan Rauch, author of The Happiness Curve and Senior fellow at the Brooking Institute makes a compelling case for Napolitano to be Biden’s pick:
Why? Start with the structure of the 2020 race. It’s not going to be an identity-politics or ideological election. Af-Ams, e.g., have shown they want Trump out and will go with the candidate(s) who can accomplish that. Same is true of the rest of the Dem base. 2/13
— Jonathan Rauch (@jon_rauch) April 21, 2020
These voters (like everyone) know that Biden’s age make his VP likely to succeed him. They want a VP who they can envision as commander-in-chief and who is a safe pair of hands. Someone they can easily imagine as president. 4/13
— Jonathan Rauch (@jon_rauch) April 21, 2020
So the list is getting short. But…Napolitano! 6/13
— Jonathan Rauch (@jon_rauch) April 21, 2020
After serving as Arizona governor, Napolitano was tapped to be President Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security.
Another interesting tidbit is she announced she will be step down from her job as a university president in August – which is conveniently around the same time as the Democratic National Convention, as Rauch points out.
If Biden is to mount a winnable campaign he needs to win a state like Arizona which hasn’t voted for a Democrat for president since Clinton’s re-election in 1996.
However, the odds are still long for Napolitano. Predictive markets have Kamala Harris as the favorite at nearly 2 to 1 odds whereas Napolitano is at 87-1 odds to be the VP nominee.
Lastly, In case you were wondering, Fox News personality Andrew Napolitano is not related to Janet, but has jokingly referred to her as his “evil cousin Janet”.
