Kamala Harris spent four years as Joe Biden's loyal number two – campaigning for him, defending him, covering for him.
Now his own people are talking.
And Harris had no idea any of it was coming.
Biden Flew Whitmer to Delaware and Then Picked Someone Else
Joe Biden didn't stumble into Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's name. He pursued her.
In the spring of 2020, Whitmer was everywhere. She was on national television pushing back on Trump over COVID supplies, trading public shots with the president while Michigan's case counts climbed.
Trump tweeted "Liberate Michigan." Whitmer kept governing. Biden was watching.
According to a new Atlantic profile of Whitmer published this week, Biden vetted her as a running mate, personally flew her to Delaware for a face-to-face conversation, and – by the time she landed – she was ready to say yes. Biden didn't ask.
A former senior Whitmer staffer told The Atlantic exactly why: "The moment called for a black running mate." A former adviser who worked for both Biden and Kamala Harris confirmed that claim carried "some weight."
Biden wanted the governor of the most critical swing state in the Rust Belt. He chose a California senator who had dropped out of the 2020 primary before a single vote was cast, citing a lack of funds.
The George Floyd riots made the decision for him. Not strategy. Not polling. Not Whitmer's governing record in a state Trump needed to win. Street pressure from activists chose the Democrat Party's vice presidential nominee.
Biden's First Choice for VP Would Have Won Michigan in 2024
This matters beyond 2020.
Whitmer won Michigan twice by double digits. Biden carried the state by 2.8 points in 2020. Trump flipped it back by 1.4 in 2024 – a swing of more than four points in a state decided by roughly 100,000 votes.
Manhattan Institute policy analyst Neetu Arnold concluded that Democrats "paid a hefty price for choosing a candidate based on identity rather than merit" in 2024, with the party losing ground among Hispanic, Asian, and black voters simultaneously.
Whitmer knew the voters Harris couldn't reach. She campaigned in the reddest parts of Michigan – the places Democrat operatives don't bother with. She built a record winning over working voters in a state Trump had to have.
She is now the vice chair of the Democrat Governors Association, positioning herself for 2028. The party that sidelined her in 2020 is running out of better options.
Biden Advisers Admit BLM Pressure Drove the Kamala Harris VP Pick
Biden told ABC News in August 2020 that he "didn't feel pressure to select a black woman." That claim just got buried.
His own advisers – people inside his orbit who worked directly with both Biden and Harris – told The Atlantic the pressure was real and that Biden's preference for Whitmer was genuine.
The selection Democrats called historic and inevitable was, by their own account, a capitulation to the loudest voices in the street.
This is the Democrat Party's operating system. The activists pick the candidate. Results don't matter until the losses pile up.
Harris spent four years as vice president building no meaningful coalition, winning no state she didn't already have, and running a 2024 campaign that collapsed in every competitive state on the map.
Trump carried Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia – every state that decided the election. The candidate Biden actually wanted had won Michigan twice and knew how to hold the Rust Belt. Instead, Biden sent her home from Delaware and handed the job to a failed primary candidate.
Democrats didn't lose 2024 in October. They lost it in a Delaware living room in August 2020, when Biden flew in the right choice and couldn't make the call.
Whitmer told Fox 2 in December 2020: "If Joe Biden had called and said 'I need you to be my partner and be my running mate' I would have said yes."
He didn't call. Four years later, his party paid for it.
Sources:
- Lindsay Kornick, "Biden 'had to choose' Harris for VP but 'wanted it to be' Gretchen Whitmer: report," Fox News, April 14, 2026.
- Neetu Arnold, "DEI Made the Democratic Party Less Diverse," Newsweek, November 21, 2024.
- Gretchen Whitmer, interview with Fox 2, December 2020.