Joe Biden picked U.S. Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate on August 11, 2020

This article listed possible candidates for the Democratic nomination for Vice President of the United States in the 2020 election.^[1]

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive nominee for President of the United States, will choose his running mate at some point before the 2020 Democratic National Convention.^[2]

Biden promised to select a woman, which make it the third time in United States history that the vice presidential nominee of a major party has been a woman, after Geraldine Ferraro (1984) and Sarah Palin (2008).^[3]

On August 11, 2020 Biden picked U.S. Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate.^[4]

Vetting is the process of beginning to search and or hire a person for an important job. In this case, vetting is the process of Biden's campaign looking for a running mate.^[5] The Biden campaign was reported to have begun the vetting process of potential running mates in May 2020.^[6] In July 2020, Biden said that "I am not committed to naming any but the people I've named, and among them are four Black women".^[7]

At first, Biden hoped to announce his running mate the week of August 5, 2020,^[8] however his campaign has pushed the announcement date to before the DNC Convention would start, which would be August 16 or before.^[1] The New York Times reported on August 10, that an announcement of who Biden picked as his running mate will happen either August 11 or August 12.^[9]

His running mate vetting process has been criticized for Biden's campaign alleged "blatant disrespectful" treatment towards black women and sexism.^[10][11][12]

On June 26, 2020, CNN and The Washington Post reported that the following five individuals were the leading candidates for the nomination.^[13] On July 29, just a week before Biden's planned announcement, The Hill reported that Karen Bass, Harris, Rice, and Warren had emerged as the "top tier" of candidates.^[14] On August 2, CNN reported that Tammy Duckworth and Gretchen Whitmer were also still under consideration.^[15]

• 
  Representative
  Karen Bass
  from California
  (2011–present)^[16][17][18]
• 
  Mayor of Atlanta
  Keisha Lance Bottoms
  from Georgia
  (2018–present)^[19][20]
• 
  Representative
  Val Demings
  from Florida
  (2017–present)^[21][22][23]
• 
  Senator
  Tammy Duckworth
  from Illinois
  (2017–present)^[21][22][23]
• 
  Senator and 2020 presidential candidate
  Kamala Harris
  from California
  (2017–present)^{[21][22][23][3]}
• 
  Governor
  Michelle Lujan Grisham
  from New Mexico
  (2019–present)^[22][23]
• 
  Former National Security Advisor
  Susan Rice
  from Washington, D.C.
  (2013–2017)^[6][22]
• 
  Senator and 2020 presidential candidate
  Elizabeth Warren
  from Massachusetts
  (2013–present)^{[21][22][23][3]}
• 
  Governor
  Gretchen Whitmer
  from Michigan
  (2019–present)^{[21][22][23][20]}

The following six individuals were originally cited to have begun undergoing vetting by the Biden campaign in May or June 2020, but it is uncertain whether they have moved on to further stages in subsequent months or not.^{[24][25][26][27][28][29][30]} Following the George Floyd protests, Amy Klobuchar was criticized for her lack of prosecution of police misconduct during her tenure, including a case involving the officer accused of murdering Floyd.^[31][32][33] On June 18, she announced that she had removed herself from consideration and urged for Biden to select a woman of color.^[34][35]

• 
  Senator
  Tammy Baldwin
  from Wisconsin
  (2013–present)^[21][22][23]
• 
  Senator
  Maggie Hassan
  from New Hampshire
  (2017–present)^[2][5]
• 
  Senator and 2020 presidential candidate
  Amy Klobuchar
  from Minnesota
  (2007–present)^{[21][22][23][3]} (withdrew)
• 
  Governor
  Gina Raimondo
  from Rhode Island
  (2015–present)^[21]

The following individuals publicly confirmed that they had declined to be vetted by the Biden campaign.^[21]

• 
  Senator
  Catherine Cortez Masto
  from Nevada
  (2017–present)^[36]
• 
  Senator
  Jeanne Shaheen
  from New Hampshire
  (2009–present)^[37]