2008 Democratic vice presidential nomination

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This article lists potential candidates for theDemocratic nomination forVice President of the United States in the2008 presidential election. After Illinois Junior SenatorBarack Obama became the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee on June 3, 2008,^[1] Obama formed a small committee, made up ofJames A. Johnson (who stepped down after one week),^[2]Eric Holder andCaroline Kennedy, to help him select arunning mate.^[3][4][5] Veteran Democratic lawyer and advisor James "Jim" Hamilton, of the firmMorgan, Lewis & Bockius, later replaced Johnson invetting candidates.^[6]

Obama strongly considered SenatorEvan Bayh and governorsTim Kaine andKathleen Sebelius, but Obama ultimately decided to select Delaware Senior SenatorJoe Biden as his running mate. Obama would later name Sebelius as hisSecretary of Health and Human Services, while Kaine would ultimately becomeHillary Clinton's running mate in2016. The Obama–Biden ticket would go on to defeat the Republican tickets ofMcCain–Palin in 2008 andRomney–Ryan in2012. Coincidental to the presidential election, Biden wasre-elected to a seventh term as senator from Delaware but later resigned after being elected Vice President.

In2020, Biden would later be elected president in his own right, defeating incumbent Republican PresidentDonald Trump.

According to contemporaneous news sources, the following people were thought to be on Senator Obama's short list for Vice President:^[7][8][9]

• 
  Senator
  Evan Bayh
  ofIndiana
  (1999–2011)
• 
  Senator and1988/2008 presidential candidate
  Joe Biden
  ofDelaware
  (1973–2009)
• 
  Senator and2008 presidential candidate
  Chris Dodd
  ofConnecticut
  (1981–2011)
• 
  Governor
  Tim Kaine
  ofVirginia
  (2006–2010)
• 
  Governor
  Kathleen Sebelius
  ofKansas
  (2003–2009)
• 
  Governor and2008 presidential candidate
  Bill Richardson
  ofNew Mexico
  (2003–2011)
• 
  Senator
  Jack Reed
  ofRhode Island
  (1997–present)

In the final days leading up to the Democratic National Convention, four individuals were left on Obama's final list for Vice President: Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, Tim Kaine, and Kathleen Sebelius.^[9]

On August 22, the eve of Obama's scheduled unveiling of his running mate,NBC News reported that Bayh and Kaine had been informed that they were not chosen.^[10] Last minute controversy emerged as it was learned that SenatorHillary Clinton was never vetted for the position, when it was earlier thought that Sen.Barack Obama would consider her as he previously stated in various private and public reports.^[11] This led to several questions as to whether Clinton supporters would feel betrayed and would defuse the intensity in "dream ticket" scenarios.

That night,ABC News reported that the U.S.Secret Service had assumed protection of Biden, which was seen as a sign that he had been chosen as Obama's running mate.^[12] Just hours later, theAssociated Press broke the news that Democratic Party officials had confided that Obama had in fact selected Biden as the vice-presidential nominee.^[13]

Obama's campaign managerDavid Plouffe later wrote in his bookThe Audacity to Win, which was published in November 2009, that Bayh had been a "coin toss" away from becoming Obama's running mate. Plouffe andDavid Axelrod had interviewed the finalists and Plouffe said that Bayh's answers were "substantively close to perfect, if cautiously so." He recalled that at the time of the interview he thought to himself, "there's no way this guy will color outside the lines... Bayh's up side and down side are probably the closest spread of the three", compared to Biden, who could "reach higher heights but could cause us real pain." As Obama approached a decision, he told Plouffe "it's a coin toss now between Bayh and Biden, but Kaine is still a distinct possibility." On August 17, Obama told Axelrod simply, "I've decided. It's Biden."^[14][15] It was later reported that Obama told Kaine, in breaking the news to him, "You are the pick of my heart, but Joe [Biden] is the pick of my head".^[16]

In 2020 Obama wrote in his memoirA Promised Land a slightly different account of the selection, not mentioning Bayh and stating that he had ultimately narrowed down the choice for his running mate to two individuals – Kaine and Biden. He stated "At the time, I was much closer to Tim".^[17] However Obama recalled that he and his advisers Axelrod and Plouffe wondered if voters would accept a ticket of "two relatively young, inexperienced, and liberal civil rights attorneys" and ultimately Obama felt the contrast between him and Biden was a strength, and that Biden being older than Obama would reassure those voters who were concerned that Obama was too young to be president.^[18] Kaine would later be selected by Hillary Clinton in her 2016 presidential campaign, losing to businessmanDonald Trump and Indiana governorMike Pence.

On August 23, 2008, via text message, the Obama campaign announced that the then-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee chose SenatorJoe Biden as his vice-presidential running mate.^[19]

The selection was well received by both the public and by political analysts, who largely agreed that Biden's lengthy Senate career and foreign policy experience complemented Obama's youth.^[20]

• 
  Senator and2008 presidential candidate
  Hillary Clinton
  ofNew York
  (2001–2009)^[7]
• 
  Representative
  Chet Edwards
  ofTexas
  (1991–2011)^[21]
• 
  Senator
  Sam Nunn
  ofGeorgia
  (1972–1997)^[22]
• 
  RepublicanSenator
  Chuck Hagel
  ofNebraska
  (1997-2009)^[23]
• 
  Senator
  Claire McCaskill
  ofMissouri
  (2007-2019)^[24]
• 
  FormerSenator
  Tom Daschle
  fromSouth Dakota
  (1987-2005)^[24]
• 
  RepublicanSenator
  Olympia Snowe
  fromMaine
  (1995–2013)^[24]
• 
  Senator
  Ken Salazar
  fromColorado
  (2005–2009)^[25]
• 
  FormerRepresentative
  Dick Gephardt
  ofMissouri
  (1977-2005)^[26]
• 
  Senator
  John Kerry
  ofMassachusetts
  (1985-2013)^[27]

• 
  Ed Rendell
  ofPennsylvania
  (2003–2011)^[7]
• 
  Brian Schweitzer
  ofMontana
  (2005–2013)^[28]
• 
  Janet Napolitano
  ofArizona
  (2003–2009)^[25]
• 
  Tom Vilsack
  ofIowa
  (1999–2007)^[25]

• 
  Supreme Allied Commander Europe
  Wesley Clark
  ofArkansas
  (1997–2000)^[7]
• 
  Vice President and2000 presidential nominee
  Al Gore
  ofTennessee
  (1993–2001)^[29]
• 
  Supreme Allied Commander Europe
  James L. Jones
  ofMissouri
  (2003–2006)^[8]
• 
  IndependentMayor of New York City
  Michael Bloomberg
  fromNew York
  (2002–2013)^[24]

• 
  Senator and2004/2008 presidential candidate
  John Edwards
  ofNorth Carolina
  (1999–2005)^[30]
• 
  Governor
  Ted Strickland
  ofOhio
  (2007–2011)^[31]
• 
  Governor
  Mark Warner
  ofVirginia
  (2002–2006)^[32]
• 
  Senator
  Jim Webb
  ofVirginia
  (2007–2013)^[33][34]

• Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign
• 2008 Democratic Party presidential candidates
• 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries
• 2008 Democratic National Convention
• List of United States major party presidential tickets

• Democratic Party (United States) vice presidential nominees
• 2008 United States presidential election
• Democratic Party (United States)
• Mark Warner
• Joe Biden
• Tim Kaine
• Evan Bayh
• Chris Dodd
• Al Gore
• John Edwards
• Barack Obama
• Vice presidency of Joe Biden
• Bill Richardson
• Wesley Clark Dodson buildings
• Hillary Clinton

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