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2008 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection

2008 Democratic vice presidential nomination
← 2004 August 21, 2008 (2008-08-21) 2016 →
 
Nominee Joe Biden
Home state Delaware

Previous Vice Presidential nominee

John Edwards

Vice Presidential nominee

Joe Biden

This article lists potential candidates for the Democratic nomination for Vice President of the United States in the 2008 presidential election. After Illinois Senator Barack Obama became the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee on June 3, 2008,[1] Obama formed a small committee, made up of James A. Johnson (who stepped down after one week),[2] Eric Holder and Caroline Kennedy, to help him select a running mate.[3][4][5] Veteran Democratic lawyer and advisor James "Jim" Hamilton, of the firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, later replaced Johnson in vetting candidates.[6]

Obama strongly considered Senator Evan Bayh and governors Tim Kaine and Kathleen Sebelius, but Obama ultimately decided to select Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. Obama would later name Sebelius as his Secretary of Health and Human Services, while Kaine would ultimately become Hillary Clinton's running mate in 2016. The Obama–Biden ticket would go on to defeat the Republican tickets of McCain–Palin in 2008 and Romney–Ryan in 2012. Coincidental to the presidential election, Biden was re-elected to a seventh term as senator from Delaware.

In 2020, Biden would later be elected president in his own right, defeating incumbent president Donald Trump.

  1. ^ "RealClearPolitics – 2008 Elections – Democratic Delegate Count". Realclearpolitics.com. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  2. ^ John Broder (June 12, 2008). "Obama Aide Quits Under Fire for His Business Ties". The New York Times. Retrieved August 22, 2008.
  3. ^ "vice president - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com". Thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com. Archived from the original on August 28, 2008. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  4. ^ "Obama Picks Caroline Kennedy, 2 Others for VP Search (Update2)". Bloomberg. June 4, 2008.
  5. ^ "Obama VP Vetter Tied to Controversial Mortgage Crisis". USA Today. June 9, 2008. Archived from the original on June 14, 2008.
  6. ^ Freed, Benjamin (June 20, 2016). "Meet the DC Lawyer Helping Hillary Clinton Pick a Running Mate". Washingtonian. Retrieved June 4, 2018.