Analyzing Hillary Clinton’s Choice For Vice President: Most Likely To Be A Sitting US Senator

It is two days until Democrat Hillary Clinton announces her Vice Presidential running mate, and it is almost certain, looking at history, that it will be a sitting United States Senator.

If one looks back historically from 1944 onward, every VP nominee except one and a half times (to be explained in next paragraph) was a sitting Senator.

The only exceptions were Sargent Shriver (second choice after Senator Thomas Eagleton withdrew over his mental shock treatments being revealed) in 1972, and Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and those were the two worst Democratic defeats ever in their history.

So 16 out of 18 elections, a US Senator ran for Vice President:

Harry Truman 1944
Alben Barkley 1948
John Sparkman 1952
Estes Kefavuer 1956
Lyndon B. Johnson 1960
Hubert Humphrey 1964
Edmund Muskie 1968
Walter Mondale 1976 and 1980
Lloyd Bentsen 1988
Al Gore 1992 and 1996
Joe Lieberman 2000
John Edwards 2004
Joe Biden 2008 and 2012

Notice that 8 of the above 13 Senators who ran for VP were from the South or Border states, and two were from Minnesota–and keep this in mind as you read further down on this entry.

So it would seem to this blogger that, based on history, one can assume that three cabinet officers—Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (a recent name added to the mix), would be unlikely to be chosen.

So that would leave the following as possible choices, all US Senators:

Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
Cory Booker of New Jersey
Tim Kaine of Virginia
Sherrod Brown of Ohio
Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
Al Franken of Minnesota

The problem is that Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Ohio have Republican Governors, so at least temporarily, a seat would be lost by Republican appointment, which could be crucial to organization of the US Senate next year.

So it would seem to this blogger that Tim Kaine is the most likely choice, followed by Amy Klobuchar (bringing a woman to the ticket, but not the highly controversial Elizabeth Warren).

In two days, we shall see!

30 comments on “Analyzing Hillary Clinton’s Choice For Vice President: Most Likely To Be A Sitting US Senator

  1. Paul Doyle July 21, 2016 12:07 am

    Professor,
    After tonight’s convention speech, maybe Ted Cruz? LOL!!

  2. Ronald July 21, 2016 12:09 am

    Ewwww! LOL

  3. D July 21, 2016 7:21 am

    Paul Doyle,

    It would be a more bold choice than Tim Kaine or Tom Vilsack or anyone who is not a gutsy progressive Democrat.

  4. Rustbelt Democrat July 21, 2016 11:40 am

    GOP convention = We have no ideas, so let’s bash Hillary.

  5. Pragmatic Progressive July 21, 2016 12:00 pm

    D – Not every Democrat is as liberal as you are. Many Democrats would be happy with Tim Kaine as VP.

  6. Southern Liberal July 21, 2016 12:03 pm

    Trump’s big speech is tonight. Should be interesting to see whether he uses a teleprompter or whether he goes off script.

  7. D July 21, 2016 10:31 pm

    Pragmatic Progressive,

    No Democrat—and certainly no progressive—should be wanting Tim Kaine to be Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential running mate.

    His wanting to deregulate the banks, his support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and his role as DNC chairman—when the party lost their majority in the U.S. House, to the tune of 60-plus seats, with the midterm elections of 2010—is absolutely NOT the profile of a running mate who would make for a smart, let alone safe, choice.

    @ http://theintercept.com/2016/07/20/tim-kaine-possible-hillary-clinton-pick-for-vice-president-signals-support-to-banks/

  8. Ronald July 21, 2016 10:36 pm

    D, I added the word NOT, which you left out of your entry.

    You bring up an interesting point.

  9. Southern Liberal July 21, 2016 11:15 pm

    If the Huffington Post crowd wants Trump to be President, then they’re free to bail.

  10. Southern Liberal July 21, 2016 11:24 pm

    In addition to the article correcting the misinformation from the Huffington Post, our local progressive blog, Blue Virginia, has a statement from Kaine’s office emphasizing that he is a strong supporter of Dodd Frank’s financial protections.

    http://bluevirginia.us/2016/07/sen-kaine

  11. Princess Leia July 22, 2016 1:26 pm

    This is one of the progressive blogs that Pragmatic Progressive, Former Republican, Rustbelt Democrat, Southern Liberal, Rational Lefty and I read. http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/

  12. Ronald July 22, 2016 1:29 pm

    As well as mine! lol hahahaha 🙂

  13. Former Republican July 22, 2016 1:34 pm

    Rational Lefty plans to return to soon.

  14. Pragmatic Progressive July 22, 2016 2:39 pm

    As Southern Liberal said earlier, while some progressives may bail out, others of us refuse to be complicit in allowing Trump to win.

  15. Former Republican July 23, 2016 11:49 am

    Tim Kaine is a good choice because the majority of voters in this country are not ultra left or ultra right.

  16. Rational Lefty July 23, 2016 12:48 pm

    The average voter isn’t a political junkie like we are.

  17. Princess Leia July 25, 2016 1:20 pm

    Pragmatic – Articles like that are why I patronize the Washington Monthly. They put things into perspective.

  18. Southern Liberal July 25, 2016 1:21 pm

    Pragmatic – Must say, I’m listening to the clip of Clinton and Kaine linked in the post. I’m in Clinton’s introduction to him, and whatever it says about him, it sure doesn’t sound as if she herself is the centrist, sellout, coward, and liar that she’s supposed to be, per either Trump or the Sanders base.

  19. Princess Leia July 25, 2016 1:22 pm

    Southern Liberal – The Far Left has never been known for its ability to grasp nuance. That’s the biggest difference between the absolutists and those who want to actually get things done. Too much black-and-white thinking on both extremes.

  20. Rational Lefty July 25, 2016 1:28 pm

    Hopefully the convention will settle people’s minds her and him.

  21. Pragmatic Progressive July 25, 2016 6:24 pm

    She’s precisely right. Whether Kaine or Hillary is to the left or right of Bernie or Elizabeth Warren depends on the issue in question. On certain issues, such as gun control, Kaine is to the left of Sanders.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.