Opinion: With Biden out, Kamala Harris can make history with her own VP pick

In blackjack, when you have a strong opening hand, the best players “double down” so they can increase their earnings.

Conversely, when the best players know their hand has little to no chance of winning, they fold, which is what the Democratic Party has now done with President Joe Biden's reelection effort. The question now: Does the party have an ace up its sleeve in Vice President Kamala Harris?

If the Democrats either anoint or nominate Harris, then the next crucial query will be: Who should be her running mate? Does she pick a white, male Southern governor like North Carolina’s Roy Cooper or Kentucky’s Andy Beshear? Or Pennsylvania’s wunderkind Gov. Josh Shapiro? Maybe former astronaut and senator from Arizona, Mark Kelly?

All worthy choices but I believe the Democratic Party can no longer play it safe and go with the “establishment” choice or the “ticket-balancing pick.”

It’s time for women to take over the reins of this country. With one exception, white men have led the U.S. since 1776 – in other words, 248 years. That’s a lot of testosterone, needless wars and reckless policies that have resulted in a bitterly divided country.

Harris should pick Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a solidly feminist, courageous and competent Midwestern governor. The subject of a rap song, “Big Gretch,” Whitmer has stared down a dangerous kidnapping plot and defeated the Republican majority in her legislature.

Americans care about inflation, the economy, crime and affordable health care. But none of these are being subjected to the same level of coordinated attack by the Republican Party as women’s bodily autonomy. Because of former President and current GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s three Supreme Court picks, tens of millions of women face difficulties getting access to abortion and the freedom that comes with personal choice. And his selection of Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate shows he is doubling down on efforts to eliminate even more reproductive freedoms for women.

But as bad as things have gotten for women in post-Dobbs America, a Trump-Vance victory will almost certainly make them worse. A national ban on abortion is a strong possibility; criminalizing the use of mifepristone as an abortion pill is also threatened; and Vance has gone on record as wanting to ban abortions even in cases of rape and incest. 

A Harris-Whitmer ticket would be a powerful symbol of shifting power dynamics in the wake of Dobbs and the #MeToo movement. They can contrast their support of reproductive freedoms as a civil right, following in the footsteps of the racial and sexual civil rights crusades that have animated the past six decades. 

This female dynamic duo would energize the 55% of the electorate who are either grandmothers, mothers or women of childbearing age. Men like me, a father of three daughters, will join the crusade to elect two women who will make history.

Over the past five decades, countries like the United Kingdom, Israel, India, New Zealand, most Scandinavian countries, and a few progressive African countries have all had women leaders. Almost all of them went on to be strong, respected, and incorruptible leaders who inspired generations of young women in their countries to strive for greatness.

America became a beacon of hope and change in 2008 when we elected our first Black president. Barack Obama’s rise came at the expense of the first potential female president, and Hillary Clinton’s path to the White House was thwarted again in 2016, despite a huge popular vote margin over Donald Trump.

America – and the Democratic Party – needs to take a bold step and double down on women next month at the party's convention in Chicago. Nominate Kamala Harris and Gretchen Whitmer as the Democratic ticket, and watch them run rings around the two misogynists from Florida and Ohio. Any self-respecting woman who does not vote for a Harris-Whitmer ticket will be a traitor to their gender and their country.

America can’t regress to a pre-Roe landscape of back-alley abortions and Handmaid's Tale-level loss of agency. 

It is time for change and for America to elect a presidential ticket as young and dynamic as the Clinton-Gore ticket was three decades ago. 

The Democratic Party should double down and let the nation reap the rewards gained from electing two women who will finally end almost 250 uninterrupted years of male rule in the greatest democracy in the world.

Tom Allon is the founder of City & State.