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Regarding Klobuchar as a possible VP candidate; people generally dismiss VP candidates as not being relevant in elections. Mostly I think that& #39;s right: very few voters decide to vote for or against a ticket based on the running mate.
Additionally, given Biden& #39;s age, it seems like the priority this year (even more so than normally) should be to select someone who can take over as president if need be and/or who would make a good candidate in 2024. Biden also might look at uniting the party / exciting the base.
But there is evidence that running mates have some effect in their home states. In a paper Brenton Peterson and I published in 2015 we used synthetic controls to measure the average number of points VP candidates add at home as being around 3 percentage points.
Crucially, this holds true across different time periods and in states that are competitive and/or have a high number of electoral votes. So picking a swing state running mate can actually improve a ticket& #39;s performance (again, on average).
To be sure, the spread across individual candidates is quite big. So there& #39;s no guarantee that a candidate like Klobuchar will deliver. Additionally, there are not a lot of presidential elections that hinged on just one state.: in 2016, Clinton needed to flip 3.
But a 3 point change in Florida in 2000 or Ohio in 2004 would have put Gore or Kerry in the White House. And it& #39;s not clear whether Lieberman or Edwards added much else to the ticket (in either votes or potential governing experience).
Klobuchar may not be Biden& #39;s best potential VP, and there are good arguments for thinking about other considerations in selecting alternative options. But Biden at least considering a swing-state senator with a strong electoral record at home is very sensible.
For the article see; https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1532673x16642567.
For">https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/1... more on the argument/approach, see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/04/26/this-research-shows-that-vice-presidential-candidates-actually-do-win-votes-in-their-home-states/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monk...
For">https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/1... more on the argument/approach, see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/04/26/this-research-shows-that-vice-presidential-candidates-actually-do-win-votes-in-their-home-states/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monk...
