Is Kamala a Lock for VP?

5. Keisha Lance Bottoms

Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty.

Nothing knocks pundits’ socks off quite like a mayor passionately pleading with looters to stop looting, as the Atlanta mayor did at the height of the George Floyd protests. As with Demings, her actual handling of police affairs is a complicated one with its share of detractors in the city, and she could use some additional vetting. But there’s no question Bottoms is on the short, if not the very short, list of contenders. Because what Bottoms had, even before her recent national star turn, that no other candidate on this list had was early and unwavering support for Joe Biden. Harris could’ve taken a risk and endorsed Biden before the California primary. She didn’t. Warren ran against Biden and, at times, harshly. Demings endorsed Biden only after Super Tuesday. Stacey Abrams endorsed Biden in May, after she had started campaigning to be Biden’s running mate. Bottoms, meanwhile, endorsed Biden in June—of 2019. When everyone had left Biden for dead after New Hampshire and Iowa, Bottoms was showing up to South Carolina events dutifully performing her surrogate duties. Let’s not play dumb (just for a few sentences here, then we’ll go back to playing dumb): It’s pretty unlikely that Biden will run for a second term, and as a lame-duck president, those Democrats who wish to succeed him will be tempted to prioritize their own positioning over their unwavering commitment to the Biden presidency itself. Biden may know he can trust Bottoms more than he can the others.

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