By Lydia Polgreen / The New York Times
Over the weekend I wrote about the way diversity, equity and inclusion have redounded to the benefit of J.D. Vance, saying he as much as anyone could be called a DEI candidate, even though the term, intended as a negative, has only been applied to Kamala Harris, who is Black.
Several readers wrote in to quibble with my argument by saying that Harris, unlike Vance, was explicitly chosen as vice president because of her race and gender, and therefore she was quite literally a DEI candidate.
I did not include this in my column because to me it seemed too obvious, but given how many people have made this point it is worth saying: On a two-person presidential ticket, the running mate is always a diversity pick. Modern running mates are chosen to balance a ticket, and identity is a huge part of that balance.
John F. Kennedy (reluctantly) chose Lyndon B. Johnson as a way to shore up his weaknesses in the South. Ronald Reagan chose a patrician scion of the Northeastern elite to balance out his Western image. Barack Obama chose Joe Biden at least in part for his age and experience. Donald Trump chose Mike Pence for his appeal to religious conservatives. Each brought needed diversity to the ticket, and each had strengths and weaknesses.
Even Vance is a diversity pick; a youthful counter to a 78-year-old presidential candidate. He may be ideologically similar to Trump, but he comes from a very different background: Midwestern and working class, quite a contrast to Trump, the born-rich son of a New York City real estate magnate.
One could quibble about how qualified each of these men was for the job, but the fact that their identities were part of why they got the nod does not diminish their legitimacy as running mates. It is telling that only in the case of a Black woman running mate does this effort to diversify the ticket get such outsize attention, which, in the end, was the point I was trying to make in my column: There are many kinds of diversity and lots of forms of affirmative action, some of them baked right into our Constitution. Maybe we should be a little more vocal and honest with ourselves about that.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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