Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto withdrew her name from consideration as Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick for the Democratic ticket.
“I support Joe Biden 100% and will work tirelessly to help get him elected this November. It is an honor to be considered as a potential running mate, but I have decided to withdraw my name from consideration,” Cortez Masto said in a statement on Thursday.
Cortez Masto, 56 and the first Latina elected to the Senate, was considered a dark horse contender for the vice presidential pick who could help him shore up the Latino vote in November.
The move is a blow to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Cortez Masto’s predecessor and a force within the Democratic party who had publicly voiced his support for Biden picking her.
She cited the coronavirus pandemic as a reason for declining to move forward in the vetting process.
“Nevada’s economy is one of the hardest hit by the current crisis, and I will continue to focus on getting Nevadans the support they need to get on back on their feet,” said Cortez Maso, elected to the Senate in 2016 after eight years as Nevada’s attorney general.
This is the second potential running mate to decline to move forward in the vetting process. New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen also dropped out of the running last week.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Florida Rep. Val Demings, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar are among the women who have been asked to start the vetting process.
Biden said at a fundraiser Wednesday that he hopes to announce his running mate around Aug. 1.
“We’re in the process of deciding the basic cut about whether or not they really want it. Are they comfortable? They’ve asked a lot of questions,” Biden said.
“I want to make sure that wherever I speak to, whoever I have, has some qualities that I don’t possess, as well as is willing to, in fact, tell me the truth, but also do it in a way that is between the two of us between her and me so that they can, in fact, be completely candid with me because I want to have people around me that have strengths and capacities I don’t.”
