Hispanic voters will be the largest ethnic minority in the electorate in 2020. They, combined with black Americans, may very well decide who will live in the White House in 2021. But it would be a major mistake for Biden to assume that these voter blocs agree with one another concerning Gov. Lujan Grisham’s open borders position or her reversion to ineffective COVID-19 edicts involving mask mandates and the refusal to reopen public schools. Black voters have jobs, pay taxes, and are not particularly fond of gubernatorial decrees that prevent their children from attending school. And they may see the choice of Gov. Lujan Grisham as a signal that their votes have again been taken for granted.

A similar dilemma faces Biden if he attempts to bolster his poll numbers among black voters by choosing someone like former National Security Advisor Susan Rice. Hispanic voters will see this as a return to the bad old days of the Obama administration. As AP phrases it, “For many Latinos, Biden’s embrace of the Obama years is a frightening reminder of when the former president ejected about 3 million people living in the U.S. illegally.” The obvious answer to all of this is for Biden to abandon his race-based VP search, but he is justifiably afraid to run on his own record. In the end, however, it doesn’t really matter who Biden chooses as a running mate. Like Clinton, he will be defeated by Trump.