WASHINGTON D.C. (WCMH) — The women on Joe Biden’s short list for running mate not named Kamala Harris are moving on with their lives and careers, something Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is familiar with as well.
“I didn’t really think that, early in the process, I really wanted [the vice presidency] that much, but by the end I really did and I was disappointed,” Sen. Brown said.
Brown was one of the last few names on Hillary Clinton’s running mate shortlist back in 2016, but she ended up choosing Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.
“When you get closer and closer and it might actually happen and you get more and more excited and then the letdown is more when the presidential candidate calls you and says ‘Sorry I chose somebody else,'” Brown said.
While the veepstakes guessing game becomes a reliable national pastime every four years, it’s one Brown says he didn’t play.
“I never talked about it publicly during the process. I never said i was being vetted,” Brown said. “Usually, when you apply for a job, the rest of the country doesn’t know it.”
In fact, Brown said one interview lasted more than six hours inside the halls of a D.C. law firm.
“Questioning and documentation of everything and looking back on your life and wondering if this is a problem, or this is a problem,” Brown said of the extensive interview process.
Brown said the decision came fast and Clinton called personally to say he wasn’t her pick.
“It’s a lot of pressure, but I considered it such an honor to get to go through that process,” he said.
The process will officially when Senator Harris accepts the nomination during the Democratic National Convention next week.