Joe Biden urged to pick a black woman as running mate

Over 200 black women have signed an open letter to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden urging him to pick a black woman as his running mate.

Biden has said he would choose a woman to be his vice presidential nominee, and has named several black women he may pick to be on the ticket.

The letter is the latest sign of the public pressure Biden and his campaign are facing to select a woman of color to be on the Democratic ticket in November.

The letter reads, "We urge you to seize this historic opportunity to choose a Black woman running mate who will fight for the issues that matter most to the American people and help deliver a decisive victory and a successful Biden presidency."

It adds the women listed "have the experience, qualifications and principled core values of a true leader that would make for the right partner to help catapult the Democrats to victory in November."

The letter, signed by black women working in both the public and private sectors, lists several potential candidates: former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, California Rep. Karen Bass, Florida Rep. Val Demings, Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and former national security adviser Susan Rice.

Signers include actors Vanessa Williams, Latanya Richardson Jackson and Pauletta Washington, the former chairman and president of the US Tennis Association, Katrina Adams, the former editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, Susan Taylor, and the first female African American president of Spelman College, Johnnetta Cole.

Abrams has said she would be honoured to accept the position and that she would make an "excellent running mate".

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan have also all been mentioned in conversations by the former vice president as potential candidates.

Biden said earlier this month that he expects the group that will vet the potential candidates for vice president will be formed by May 1 and that the list of contenders will be narrowed down sometime in July.

Only two women have been vice presidential nominees for a major party in the US: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008 and former New York Rep. Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.