POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS

WASHINGTON Democrat Joe Biden said Monday that he is getting extensive briefings from lawyers vetting candidates for vice president and plans to have personal discussions with his final choices for running mate. The presumptive presidential nominee said on MSNBCs The ReidOut that he is getting a "two-hour vetting report" on his VP contenders. Biden has been under some pressure to choose a Black woman as his vice presidential candidate in a nod to the constituency's role as the most dependable Democratic base of voters. He would not commit Monday to selecting a Black woman when asked on MSNBC, saying only, "I am not committed to naming any but the people I have named, and among them there are four Black women. So, that decision is underway right now.Among the Black women Biden is believed to be considering are California Sen. Kamala Harris, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Florida Rep. Val Demings, California Rep. Karen Bass and former Obama administration official Susan Rice.

Wisconsin, where Trump won by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016, joins newly emerging battleground Arizona as the first two states where Biden has named his campaign team. Two veterans of Sen. Tammy Baldwins successful 2018 reelection campaign will run Bidens Wisconsin operation. Shirley Ellis, a longtime adviser to U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, will join Biden team as a strategic adviser focused on Milwaukee. She will join Bidens campaign formally after the August convention, according to the campaign. The Wisconsin team, especially, is intended to show that the Biden campaigns talk of a wide map isnt at the exclusion of traditional battlegrounds.

Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to speak during an event in Dover, Del., Friday, June 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON After primaries and caucuses in 42 states and the District of Columbia, Joe Biden won the last few delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for president late Friday as states worked to tally a surge of mail ballots. But a huge increase in vote-by-mail ballots, driven in large part by the coronavirus pandemic, meant election officials were still counting ballots Friday. The process led the AP to allocate 21 delegates to Biden late Friday, after it completed an analysis of votes released by election officials in the three states earlier in the evening. Biden would have wrapped up the Democratic nomination much earlier, if not for the coronavirus pandemic 15 states, along with Guam and Puerto Rico, postponed their nominating contests due to the outbreak.

WASHINGTON After primaries and caucuses in 42 states and the District of Columbia, Joe Biden has won the last few delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for president as states worked to tally a surge of mail ballots. But a huge increase in vote-by-mail ballots, driven in large part by the coronavirus pandemic, meant election officials were still counting ballots Friday. The process led the AP to allocate 21 delegates to Biden late Friday, after it completed an analysis of votes released by election officials in the three states earlier in the evening. Biden would have wrapped up the Democratic nomination much earlier, if not for the coronavirus pandemic 15 states, along with Guam and Puerto Rico, postponed their nominating contests due to the outbreak. It's not unusual for a Democratic nominee to clinch the party's nomination in early June.

Biden has met the 89% threshold in only two contests since Super Tuesday: Mississippi (94%) and Nebraska (100%). Nearly all of Tuesday's primary balloting will be by mail, just like in most of the states voting in recent weeks amid the vrius outbreak, including Ohio. The violence raging across the nation is likely to increase pressure on Biden to choose an African American woman as his running mate. ___2020 Watch runs every Monday and provides a look at the week ahead in the 2020 election. ___Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game.

RALEIGH, N.C. North Carolina's top health official asked Friday for more details on how GOP leaders will protect attendees of a Republican National Convention this summer during the COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump has threatened to move his formal renomination elsewhere if he does not soon get guarantees of being able to hold a large-scale event. The GOP's letter Thursday did not mention such a request, but Cohen said it had been discussed by phone. The state continues to support the hosting of the Republican National Convention in Charlotte if it can be done safelty, Cohen wrote to Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and convention CEO Marcia Lee Kelly. Cooper is seeking reelection this fall in a state Trump won in 2016.

North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen sent a letter Monday to the top RNC organizer asking for a written safety plan after Trump demanded in a tweet that North Carolina guarantee a full-scale, in-person convention will be held. Cooper and Cohen say that they had discussed various scenarios with convention organizers but want their plan in writing. Were ready to hold the RNC convention in North Carolina in a safe way. Cooper said his administration required a similar written plan from NASCAR ahead of its recent race in the Charlotte area that was held without fans. The county surrounding Charlotte has had the most virus cases of any in North Carolina, and the state is experiencing an upward trend in cases.