Stacey Abrams doesn’t have the necessary job qualifications as of today. While Elizabeth Warren would add impressive debating chops to the ticket, she is too old, and her ideology is too far left. The public has never heard of most of the rest of the potential VP candidates. To me, it comes down to Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar.
Both of them are qualified to be president. It is clear that there are no meaningful ideological differences between Biden and Klobuchar, while Harris’ views are relatively obscure, which is almost the same thing. Klobuchar arguably would be of more assistance in winning the swing states; Harris would do more to fire up the base, and would pay a debt to the African-American community.
To me, it comes down to two things. First, picking Klobuchar would put her Senate seat at risk; no Republican is going to win Harris’ seat. Second, while the Harris campaign fizzled first, she is actually the more dynamic campaigner; you just have to define the platform for her. She couldn’t figure that out on her own, but it would be done for her as the junior member of the ticket.
I could certainly live with either one, but, in the end, I think balancing the ticket in this context means providing a more exciting counterpoint to Biden’s generic brand, and that means Harris.