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(CNN Español) — Joe Biden has selected his running mate, revealing to top advisers on Tuesday the woman he will invite to join his ballot ticket, two people familiar with the matter told CNN, and he is set to make the announcement as soon like today.
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The former vice president had spoken directly with the final contenders, according to people familiar with the process, through face-to-face meetings or remote conversations. Officials did not say which of the candidates visited Biden in person, but CNN confirmed last week that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had flown to Delaware for a meeting. California Sen. Kamala Harris and Obama’s former national security adviser Susan Rice are among the others seen as the most likely contenders.
CNN had previously reported that Biden is also believed to be considering California Rep. Karen Bass, chair of the Congressional Black Community Legislative Group, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, say people familiar with the search.
In yet another sign that the election is imminent, a Biden campaign official told CNN on Tuesday that they have rounded up the staff for Biden’s future running mate.
Karine Jean-Pierre, who joined Biden’s campaign as a senior advisor in May, will lead the running mate’s team as chief of staff. Jean-Pierre had previously worked for the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Martin O’Malley.
Two veterans of the Obama-Biden administration will also join the team. Liz Allen, who served as Biden’s deputy communications director as vice president and as deputy communications director at the White House, joins the running mate as communications director. And Sheila Nix, who was Biden’s 2012 reelection campaign chief of staff and served as Jill Biden’s chief of staff at the White House, will be a senior advisor to the running mate and her spouse. The vice president is expected to add some of her own advisers to the team as well.
Whoever Biden sets out will be a landmark election in its own right, becoming the third woman to be nominated as a vice presidential candidate for a major party ballot.
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