Influential labor organizer and United Farmworkers founder Dolores Huerta backed Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) this week to be former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate.
Huerta signaled that Bass, a former “community organizer,” could unify the party because Bass has no intention of seeking the presidency if Biden decides to only serve one term if elected.
Huerta’s remarks to Payday Report were even more significant because she backed Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) in the presidential primary, and Harris is considered to be a frontrunner who is also actively seeking to get on the ticket.
“We have to hope and pray that the Vice President will pick her,” Huerta told Payday Report. “I always think of the Bernie Bros and Bernie Sisters, and [Bass] would bring them to the table and the campaign.”
Huerta implied that Bass, unlike Harris, is not a “self-promoter” who will not seek the “limelight.”
“She’s a very humble person, she’s not a self-promoter,” Huerta reportedly added of Bass. “She would be very good at the Vice Presidency; she would be able to support what the President is doing rather try to keep the limelight.”
As Payday Report noted, if Biden intends to serve just one term if elected president, Bass could appeal to him because she “has publicly indicated that she has no desire to run for president and would only serve as vice president.”
Party activists reportedly fear that if Biden chooses Harris or Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), it “could set off a civil war within the Democratic party.”
Huerta reportedly believes that Bass, because of her “community organizing roots,” can prevent “Bernie Bros” and “Bernie Sisters” from sitting out this election cycle. She also thinks Bass can appeal to Republicans and moderate white voters because Bass takes “on controversial issues without making them inflammatory.”
Never Trump columnist George Will, who said he is voting for Biden this year, recently urged Biden to select Bass as his running mate. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) also reportedly once called Bass “his favorite Democrat” because of her ability to get bipartisan deals done.
Bass would also have to help Biden appeal to black voters, and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the godfather of South Carolina politics who propelled Biden to the nomination, has reportedly also “signaled his support for Bass.”
CNN and MSNBC asked Bass on Sunday about the vice presidential selection process, and Bass deflected the questions, saying she was willing to do whatever Biden needs her to do to help him defeat Trump in November.
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