Former Alaska Governor and Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin took time on Wednesday to offer nonpartisan advice to Democrat Joe Biden’s Vice Presidential pick, Senator Kamala Harris. As the presumptive nominee, Biden’s selection solidified Harris alongside Palin among the small club of women chosen to run for VP.
Palin was selected as John McCain’s VP pick on the 2008 Republican ticket, and Geraldine Ferraro was selected as Walter Mondale’s running-mate on the 1984 Democratic ticket. They were the only females to be chosen for the slot on a major party ticket, with Senator Harris being the third.
Palin said that being able to bond in the experience of being a woman in this unique position helped her, but that Senator Harris is better-prepared for the role than her predecessors: “I had a great discussion with Geraldine Ferraro when I was chosen. I called her and we were able to bond over this unique experience that she’d had, and that I was ready to have. She [Kamala Harris] is in a better position, in terms of what to expect, than I or Geraldine Ferraro back in the day. I wish that more women would have reached out to me at the time because it was a tough job, of course, running for that office.”
She also advised Senator Harris to not allow herself to be “muzzled” by campaign advisors, and expressed a hope that the media treats this campaign more favorably than they did her campaign in 2008: “I hope that she stands strong and reminds campaign managers, ‘You don’t know any more than anybody else!’ Too many of them are in it for a business – they’re in it for a season, not a reason. Hopefully, she won’t let them muzzle her. Campaign managers, they sure attempted to muzzle – and for a while, there, I was muzzled. So, I hope she doesn’t go through that. I had so much fun. I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was the most amazing experience to get to see America, to get get to see Americans, and who it is who makes this country so great. I hope that the media will treat her candidacy not as personally rough as they treated mine. A lot of the coverage of me was quite unfair.”
When John McCain announced his selection of Palin, she was serving the second-year of her only term as Governor of Alaska.
