White House hopeful Joe Biden has committed to picking a woman as his vice presidential candidate should he win the Democratic nomination, a race he currently leads against Bernie Sanders.
"If I'm elected president, my cabinet, my administration, will look like the country, and I commit that I will in fact appoint a woman to be vice president," Mr Biden, himself a former vice president, said during a debate against his leftist rival Mr Sanders.
"There are a number of women who are qualified to be vice president tomorrow," the moderate Mr Biden added.
Mr Sanders, for his part, responded by saying that "in all likelihood" he would do the same.
"To me, it's not just nominating a woman. It is making sure that we have a progressive woman and there are progressive women out there."
Two women have been chosen previously as running mates for major party nominees.
Democrat Walter Mondale put Geraldine Ferraro on the ticket in 1984, while Sarah Palin was Republican John McCain's pick in 2008, but both lost their elections.
It has been no secret that both Mr Biden and Mr Sanders were seriously considering naming a female vice presidential candidate.
Among Mr Biden's possible choices are Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Amy Klobuchar, both former competitors in the battle for this year's Democratic Party nomination - or even the progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was briefly a frontrunner in the race.
Prior to her position in the US Senate, the African-American Ms Harris served as the attorney general of California, while Ms Klobuchar is a moderate from the midwestern state of Minnesota.
Another possible choice is Stacey Abrams, a former state legislator from Georgia who narrowly lost the governor's race there in 2018.
