When the Democratic kingmaker and South Carolina representative Jim Clyburn was asked on PBS NewsHour last week whether he thought Joe Biden should pick a Black woman as his running mate, as many of Biden’s other supporters are asking him to, the conversation took a surprising turn.
“I do believe that it is a little bit foolhardy for us to be focusing on the vice-presidential choice, rather than other things as well,” Clyburn told anchor Judy Woodruff. Instead, he said, “I long for an African American woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court. It’s a shame that we have had three women to sit on the United States Supreme Court and no one has ever given the kind of consideration that is due to an African American woman. That, to me, is a priority.”
He added, “The V.P. is good on style, but on substance give me an African American woman on the Supreme Court. That’s where we determine how our democracy will be preserved. This Supreme Court has neutered the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And so I am very concerned about the composition of the United States Supreme Court.”
Clyburn definitely has a point. The vice-presidential pick will get the most attention when it is announced later this month—and, yes, if a Black woman is named to the ticket, it will indeed be a historic moment. But perhaps not enough attention is being paid to Biden’s potential cabinet (as well as the Supreme Court) if he is elected in November and the impact he can make with those picks.
Here are some of his options.
Supreme Court: There will likely be several openings on the court during a potential Biden first term. As has been widely reported, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87 and battling cancer, has been in and out of the hospital in recent months and is no doubt hanging on to her seat in the hopes that a Democratic president will be able to pick her successor. But Ginsburg might not be the only justice on the cusp of retirement: Stephen Breyer is 81, Clarence Thomas is 72 (and has been on the court for three decades), and Samuel Alito is 70. If Kamala Harris is not picked as Biden’s running mate, she would be an excellent option for the court. A graduate of the U.C. Hastings College of Law, Harris served as the attorney general of California before being elected to the Senate. And not only would she make history as the first Black woman to sit on the court, but it would also be great theater to see her share the bench with Brett Kavanaugh, whom she grilled so memorably during his confirmation hearings.
Treasury: This cabinet post also offers a chance for Biden to make history. Starting with Alexander Hamilton and going up through Steve Mnuchin, 77 people have served as secretary of the Treasury. Every single one of them has been a man. Elizabeth Warren would change that. Warren helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when she was a professor at Harvard Law School and before being elected to the Senate. Though her potential Treasury appointment has been called “a nightmare for Wall Street”, her deep knowledge of the country’s financial system would be a key asset for a president looking to lead an economic recovery following the disastrous effects of the pandemic. And some influential observers see her a logical pick for Treasury. “We believe Warren would be an especially powerful Treasury secretary, with Biden likely delegating to her primary responsibility for financial and economic policy,” Jaret Seiberg, policy analyst at Cowen Washington Research Group, wrote in a note to clients in June.
Secretary of State: Three women have served as secretary of state in the past—Madeleine Albright (under Bill Clinton), Condoleezza Rice (under George W. Bush, and she was the first Black woman to serve in this position), and, of course, Hillary Clinton (under Barack Obama). So picking Susan Rice for this position would not be a game changer for Biden. But Rice, a former ambassador to the United Nations and national security advisor to Barack Obama, took herself out of the running for this job in 2012 because it looked like a tough confirmation fight loomed. Getting it now might be a welcome consolation prize if she doesn’t join the Biden ticket as his running mate.
Secretary of Defense: There has never been a female secretary of defense, and Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost both her legs in combat and who has served on the Armed Services Committees in both the House and the Senate, would be a striking and deeply symbolic choice for this position. Biden could also make history by tapping another Iraq War veteran—Pete Buttigieg—for this position. Buttigieg would be the first openly gay defense secretary, which would be another strongly symbolic message for the new president to send, given the tortured history of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and Donald Trump’s recent restrictions on transgender troops. But another post in the cabinet might be better for Buttigieg.
Attorney General: There has already been the first female attorney general (Janet Reno, under Bill Clinton), the first Black attorney general (Eric Holder, under Obama), and the first Latino attorney general (Alberto Gonzales, under George W. Bush). But there has never been a South Asian attorney general. Cue up Preet Bharara, the highly respected former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who was forced out of that position by Trump in 2017. Bharara, who was born in India and came with his family to the U.S. as a toddler, has found a second career as a podcaster, law school professor, and author, but a move back into government would certainly come as welcome news to his 1.4 million Twitter followers.
Secretary of Education: It’s hard to overestimate the almost incalculable damage that Betsy DeVos has done during her disastrous three-year-tenure as education secretary under Trump, including gutting key provisions that allocated much-needed supplemental funding to high-poverty schools. And while Buttigieg may not possess the obvious background of an ideal education secretary, his husband, Chasten, brings the real-life perspective of someone who has spent time leading a classroom. And though it was derided on the campaign trail, his time as a McKinsey consultant before he became mayor of South Bend, Indiana, may help him tackle this department’s unwieldy bureaucracy and restore some of the managerial competence that has been stripped away DeVos. And then there is this: If appointed to this or any spot in Biden’s cabinet, Buttigieg would be the first openly gay person to ever serve in a secretary-level position for a U.S. president.
So, yes, Biden’s vice-presidential choice will be a consequential one. But the chance to make history doesn’t stop there.