Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has said he will nominate a woman to be his Vice Presidential running mate. Higher Heights for America commissioned Cornell Belcher and Karen Finney from Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies to poll likely voters in the key Battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Nevada and North Carolina to determine if there is support and enthusiasm for a Black woman VP as well as for a White woman.

The road to 2020 is powered by Black women,16 million of whom are eligible to vote.  When Black women vote we can make the difference in the outcome of an election.  In 2020, key voters in battleground states have also made it clear they agree it’s time for a Black woman Vice President.

Key takeaways from the poll:

• With a 27 percent margin of difference, likely voters in battleground states who aren’t currently supporting Trump, prefer a Black woman for VP over a white woman with 48 percent preferring a Black woman and only 21 percent for a white woman.

• A breakdown of these likely voters makes it even more clear why Vice President Biden should select a Black woman to be his running mate. By wide margins, among the key groups of voters Joe Biden needs most to win, a majority of white women (48%) and young voters (60%) agree it’s important that Biden select a Black woman, as do a plurality of minority (54%) and college educated women (48%).

• At 48 percent, a majority of base Biden voters, agree that Biden should select a Black woman, while only 23 percent of those base Biden voters think he should select a white woman.

The Higher Heights poll also looked at messaging around why people believe Joe Biden should select a Black woman to be his running mate:

• Across the key groups that Biden needs the most, two key themes had strong support. Voters said that they prefer someone who “represents a new generation of leadership” and has a “lived experience and diverse perspective that reflects the challenges our country faces”; also an “historic choice” “who represents a new generation of leadership and America’s changing diversity”.

To read the full report, please click here.