How a VP pick shaped U.S. politics for decades: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, we report on how Vice President Kamala Harris’ search for a running mate is nearing the finish line. Plus, a look at another big primary challenge for a House Democrat with major ad spending from pro-Israel groups.

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How a vice presidential pick can shape … everything

By Scott Bland

Presidents often describe picking a running mate as the most important decision they make in a campaign. In case that wasn’t already clear from the vetting, the interviews and the obsessive media attention, consider the long — and still lengthening — list of ways one selection shaped decades of national politics.

That decision is Barack Obama’s selection of Joe Biden in 2008.

The pick influenced not just Obama’s electoral victories and the Obama administration but also every successive presidential election since then. And it could keep doing so for years, as Vice President Kamala Harris prepares to make her choice Tuesday.

Obama’s team saw Biden’s ascension to the vice presidency as a “capstone” to his career, as campaign manager David Plouffe wrote in his 2009 book, and Biden’s decision not to run for president in 2016 cleared the way for Hillary Clinton to run without a heavyweight opponent from the Democratic establishment. Then, Donald Trump’s victory changed everything. Without having gained stature as VP, it’s inconceivable that Biden would have run or won in 2020 — but he did, based on his experience and voter relationships built as Obama’s