A majority of voters say they won't change their mind on who they want to elect as president based on who Joe Biden selects as his running mate, according to a new poll.
A Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday shows Biden's VP choice won't be a major factor in the election. Biden said he will announce his running mate after Aug. 1 and has promised to select a woman.
Poll results show:
- 54% of registered voters say Biden’s running mate will not impact how they will vote.
- 16% of registered voters say Biden’s VP pick will have a “major impact” on their vote.
- 20% of registered voters say Biden’s VP selection will have a “minor impact” on who they will cast a ballot for.
- 45% of Democrats said it is important for Biden to choose a person of color as his running mate.
In the mix for Biden’s running mate are Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, and Susan Rice, the former Obama administration national security adviser.
Several Democrat operatives told Politico it isn’t surprising that voters are not focused on Biden’s VP choice.
“I don’t see anyone going into a voting booth thinking about a VP candidate,” Joel Payne, a Democrat strategist, told Politico.
He said the VP pick should serve a “do no harm” function because “they can be a threat that can hurt the ticket — look at John McCain and Sarah Palin in 2008.”
But the recent calls for racial justice and the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on Black people has “influenced how people are looking at the VP choice,” said Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of Black PAC.
She said Biden’s shortlist of Black women has “grown over the last few weeks.”
But Hillary Clinton’s communications adviser in the 2016 election Karen Finney said the activism on the streets may not translate into the voting booth.
“You cannot take anything for granted,” Finney told Politico. “This would not be the first time we’d have a person of color on the ticket, and I hope it reminds [voters] that that’s part of how Democrats win.”
The survey polled 1,992 registered voters between July 10-12. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.