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Who Would Bernie Sanders Pick For VP? Black Women Candidates Can Only Strengthen A Ticket

Bernie Sanders’ commanding victory in the Nevada Caucuses demonstrated that the senator from Vermont can coalesce coalitions of diverse voters, bolstering his argument about his electability. It also gave him the kind of momentum that could — and should — similarly carry him to win the South Carolina primary this coming weekend, theoretically spelling delegate doom for the remaining candidates who were seemingly teetering on already being relegated to also-ran statuses following the first three contests of the young primary season. MORE: Are Black Voters Turning On Biden? Bernie’s Support Surges In The Polls South Carolina is, of course, the first chance for a large contingency of Black voters to have their voices rise above the fray of the mostly white folks who have participated in the lone primary and both caucuses. Many pundits agree that South Carolina is Joe Biden's last chance to stop Sanders, who, with a win in the Palmetto State, would move from front-runner to presumptive nominee. Should Sanders also perform well in Tuesday's debate in South Carolina and ride this wave of support on his way to receiving the Democratic nomination, one of the next logical questions moving forward is who would be his vice-presidential running mate. That, of course, makes Black women a very logical answer to that question. And despite a recent controversy over criticism of Sanders' Black women supporters, several prominent Black women have been fervently backing the senator for some time now. That was in addition to Sanders' growing support among Black voters, which has eaten into a considerable chunk of what was once Biden's commanding lead in that category. Up until the Iowa Caucuses kicked off earlier this month, all of the talk surrounding vice presidential picks was centered on Biden, whose campaign was suffering the damning optics of barely clinging to life despite insisting the opposite is true. But as soon as the results were questionable — whether that’s the DNC’s fault is another story — so, apparently, was Biden’s electoral viability. And while the first two contests showed who white voters prefer — Sanders — voters of color finally got a chance to chime in by participating in the Nevada Caucuses on Saturday. After Sanders won decidedly, many pundits were all but handing the nomination to Sanders. With that said, we already know Biden shrewdly said he would consider Black women to be his running mate if he should become the nominee. He’s made no secret of it. But Sanders has been all but mum on the topic, offering not a single presumptuous hint to where he might be leaning toward. There is also the issues of Sanders' age -- he'll be 79 by the time Election Day rolls around -- and his health -- he's fresh off a heart attack in October -- to contend with, factors that may prompt some to feel an elevated sense of urgency and importance surrounding his potential choice of running mate. "If the Democratic Party is paying attention to this actuarial action—and I think it is—their next veep nominee won’t be another no-name ticket balancer picked to satisfy the geographic, gender, and ethnic needs of the ticket. Rather, he or she will be selected with the understanding that he or she stands a higher statistical chance of completing the term of the president than previous vice presidents," Jack Shafer wrote for Politico last week. "Instead of nominating one prospective president, the Democrats, especially, will effectively be nominating two. In the absence of a crystal ball, there’s no way to determine whether the winning candidate will survive four years in office. But it shouldn’t take a crystal ball to see that the advanced ages of these candidates should be a major campaign issue." Since there remains so much suspicion surrounding where his political allegiances truly lie, the former Independent politician might -- like Biden -- want to consider aligning himself with a Black woman vice presidential candidate, seeing that Black women have long been and still are widely considered to be the backbone of the Democratic Party. Lucky for Sanders, and the country, there is no shortage of talented Black women for him to choose from to be a vice-presidential running mate should he have the opportunity to do so as the Democratic nominee. If the true objective is to beat Trump and complete the job of removing him from office that the Senate could not do, then a Black women vice presidential candidate is the way to go. Scroll down to see some of the qualified Black women who Sanders -- or whoever the Democratic nominee turns out to be -- can, and maybe should, choose from. The follow in alphabetical order.