You have to win first: What Joe Biden's pick of Kamala Harris tells us about Biden

The biggest impact of Joe Biden's choice of California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate?

It's likely to be what it tells voters about Biden.

Vice presidential candidates almost never affect the outcome of a presidential campaign one way or another. No running mate since Lyndon Johnson in 1960 is credited with pushing the ticket over the top, and not even controversial running mates like Sarah Palin in 2008 are blamed for costing the ticket a victory.

Harris' groundbreaking qualities may make more of a difference than usual by energizing African American and younger voters in a way Biden so far has struggled to do. She is both the first Black woman and the first Asian American person on a major party's ticket, and at age 55 she is a generation younger than her 77-year-old running mate.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden with Sen. Kamala Harris on Aug. 11, 2020, after the campaign announced that she would be his running mate.
But more important, with this choice, Biden gave some signals about his view of the campaign, his approach toward decision-making, and the traits he would bring to governing if he wins.

For a groundbreaking choice, Harris was also a safe one. She has twice been elected statewide in California and undergone the vetting that is part of the presidential campaign. She has shown herself as a combative debater in the primaries and an effective questioner in Senate hearings.

Biden seemed drawn to the governing possibilities of former U.N. ambassador Susan Rice, but she had never run for elective office. California Rep. Karen Bass had controversies to explain over working in Cuba that had never come up when she was running for Congress in California. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom and Rep. Val Demings of Florida were fresh faces, but they had never run statewide, let alone in a national race.