Sen. Tammy Duckworth emerges as a surprise contender as Biden's running mate

SCREEN CAPTURE / ABC

Sen. Tammy Duckworth was the first US Senator to bring her child to the Senate chambers.

As the days tick by, the day draws near when former Vice President Joe Biden will name his running mate before the Democratic Convention. The only certainty on Biden's choice is that his running will be a woman.

For most, the next question is: should she be white or black? Almost no one mentions Asian Americans.

Most experts have Sen. Kamala Harris, who is half Asian Indian, as a favorite for Joe Biden's choice, but Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth is emerging, seemingly out of nowhere, as a serious contender for the No. 2 spot.

Three people close to the Biden campaign say Duckworth is emerging as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination for Vice President, reports the Washington Post.

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the Washington Post the Purple Heart Iraqi War veteran is getting a “lot of attention”

“You had all the other names there, and it was as if she didn’t exist,” Reid said. “And suddenly people began to look at her — this highly decorated woman, member of Congress, senator.”

In 2018, Duckworth became the first to give birth while in the Senate and the first to bring her baby to the Senate floor.

There has been much speculation that Biden will pick a Black woman as his running mate because of the wide attention being given to the Black Lives Matter Movement.

When asked on Sunday, Duckworth appeared to dodge the question about whether a Black woman needed to be selected, according to Newsweek.

Duckworth told CNN she believes Black women are a “key to victory” for Biden, but fell short of saying he needed to choose a Black women.

“The Biden campaign have their own process that they’re going through and I’m sure Vice President Biden will pick the right person to be next to him as he digs this country of the of the mess that Donald Trump has put us in,” she said.

In Duckworth's favor is that she is from the Midwest, which might appeal to cautious Heartland voters who harbor a distrust against the bicoastal in-crowd that appear to run the major parties. 

RELATED: Kamala Harris appears to be among frontrunners for Biden's vice president

Duckworth sits left of center on the political spectrum, the same position shared by Biden, which would appeal to those moderate Republicans who have given up on their party. The 

“I think that you can’t win the White House without the midwest,” Duckworth told CNN’s State of the Union. “And I don’t think that you can go too far to the left and still win the midwest.

“Coming from a Midwestern state, I think you need to be able to talk to the industrial midwest. You need to listen to the people there in order to win an election nationwide.”

The Thai American senator is less of a polarizing figure than Harris, whose progressive credentials have been questioned by the far left and is seen as too radical by moderate Republicans who want somebody other than Trump but fear voting for anyone they consider as a leftist.

While Harris, whose mother is from India and father is from Jamaica, polls well among Blacks, she also brings baggage with her, especially from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. It is the same baggage, most of which she gained as California's Attorney General, the state's chief prosecutor, that caused her to withdraw early from her presidential campaign.

As a decorated war veteran, losing both of her legs when an RPG hit the helicopter she was piloting in Iraq, her patriotism would be unquestionable. There is no comeback from Republicans when she calls Trump "Cadet Bone Spurs," a nickname she coined to describe the medical condition that Trump says made him ineligible for military service.

Most of Duckworth's legislative successes has been on a number of bills benefitting the military and veterans, which won bipartisan support. But last week, she co-sponsored the broad police accountability and reform bill introduced in the Senate, along with 34 other Democrats. Duckworth had previously sponsored a bill to enforce diversity training within law enforcement.

Her story is compelling. Her mother is Thai Chinese and her white American father, a retired Marine, worked on refugee and housing projects in varioius Southeast Asian countries.

At one point in her life, after her father lost her job and the family moved to Hawaii, the young Duckworth sold flowers on the roadside to help support her family. During that time, they had to subsist on government assistance. 

Veteran and Senator Tammy Duckworth at the WWII Memorial during a recent observance.

If there is one drawback to Duckworth if she was chosen by Biden -- she is basically unknown to the Black community. Democrats need Obama-like excitement from those voters to assure a Democratic victory up and down the ticket. However, Biden's high popularity with Black voters may negate the need for a running mate who mirrors his voting appeal

One more quality Duckworth has in her favor: She's a decent human being. For a country seeking a relief from the self-centered, lying and cheating that is a hallmark of the current administration, Duckworth seems to be that antidote.

But just because she's decent, doesn't mean she isn't afraid to fight back. 

After reports surfaced that Trump had received intelligence about a suspected Russian effort to pay bounties to the Taliban to kill US troops in Afghanistan, Duckworth was  sharply critical of the president.

“I am disgusted, flabbergasted,” Duckworth said in an MSNBC interview Monday. “He continues to put Russia’s interests above the well-being of American troops, and that is absolutely unacceptable.”

She's been particularly active on Twitter as of late, no longer waiting for a formal press release, she's shooting from the hip. For example, Tucker Carlson, who hosts the highest rated program on the conservative Fox News Network, suggested Monday that Duckworth "hates" America, the war veteran tweeted back. "Does @TuckerCarlson want to walk a mile in my legs and then tell me whether or not I love America?" Duckworth wrote.

No matter who Biden picks as his running mate, Duckworth vows to continue fight Trump. “I am coming from a place where I have the ability to push back on him in a way that someone who has not served can’t,” Duckworth said. “I’m not going to watch him bully other people when I can stand up and say, ‘I see you. You are a fake patriot. You are a coward, who did not serve his country when the country called. So, don’t talk to me about patriotism.’”

ASAM NEWS contributed to this report.