Who will be Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential pick?

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With the Democratic primary behind her, Hillary Clinton has begun the process of vetting potential running mates for the Democratic ticket in November’s US presidential election — a process that in 2016 has its own particular conundrums.

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While she was once expected to choose a Hispanic candidate to appeal to the fastest-growing demographic in the US, many now believe Mrs Clinton has already won the support of this group thanks to presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump’s controversial remarks about Mexicans.

Instead, political analysts say, Mrs Clinton should focus on making a vice-presidential pick that helps her target a different demographic group.

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She has two broad options.

The first is to pick a candidate further to the left and who is able to win over the swath of the Democratic base captivated by Bernie Sanders. The second is to pick a more moderate centrist who could help Mrs Clinton appeal to white, male voters — a group she sometimes struggled to connect with during the primaries — and Republicans uncomfortable with a Trump presidency.

“The improbable elevation of Trump to the GOP nomination leaves open a vast swath of political terrain across the middle. It puts in play all kinds of moderate Republicans, particularly suburbanites, particularly women,” says Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, a think-tank close to the Bill Clinton administration. “So if I were in her shoes, I’d say you want to pick somebody who has crossover appeal, somebody who appeals to the moderate, middle America.”

Here are some of the candidates considered to be among the top contenders.

The liberal firebrand

Elizabeth Warren recently topped a Bloomberg poll of likely Clinton voters’ preferred vice-presidential picks. Among the left of the Democratic party she enjoys a cult-like status. A wonkish former Harvard bankruptcy expert, Mrs Warren, 66, made her name criticising the perceived iniquities of Wall Street with Sanders-like verve.

She has already helped Mrs Clinton out by serving as a potent weapon against Mr Trump, lambasting him as a “loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud” in a speech this month. As a running mate, one of her great strengths would be her ability to bring disappointed Sanders supporters into the Clinton fold. Yet some worry that having two women on the ticket could turn some undecided male voters against the Democrats, while Mrs Warren’s fiercely progressive views could turn off moderate Republicans.

The safe pick

A Virginia senator and former governor of the same battleground state, Tim Kaine, 58, is seen as the most likely vice-presidential pick, according to PredictWise data collated from polls and bookmakers.

In Washington he is viewed as a safe but unexciting option. A Catholic who took a year off from Harvard to run a school in Honduras founded by missionaries, Mr Kaine speaks fluent Spanish, has a record of working well with leaders across the aisle and comes from modest roots. “He’s from a working-class background, so is comfortable with blue-collar people, with labour unionism,” says Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who has known Mr Kaine for years. “He’d be very good with the kind of voters Trump is attracting.”

The Texan

Julián Castro, 41, is the youngest member of President Barack Obama’s cabinet and one of the Democratic party’s up-and-coming Latino stars.

A former mayor of San Antonio, he was brought to Washington in 2014 to serve as US secretary of housing and urban development, an appointment widely seen as a means for Democrats to beef up his résumé or test him out. He has not done much wrong since then but neither has he made a big splash in the second-tier cabinet post. Mr Castro — whose twin brother Joaquín is a US congressman — was long mooted as potential pick but has fallen off the radar in recent months. Asked this week whether he was being vetted for the job, Mr Castro replied in the negative.

The populist

Sherrod Brown, 63, the Ohio senator with the famously raspy voice, would help improve Mrs Clinton’s chance of winning his home state — one of the country’s pre-eminent presidential battlegrounds, alongside Florida — and capturing Mr Sanders’ base. Hailing from the left of the party, Mr Brown represents a potential bridge for leftwing Democrats while being less controversial than the flame-throwing Mrs Warren.

A union champion, Mr Brown has been a strong critic of trade deals since 1992, when he was first elected to the House of Representatives. But in March he said he did “not want to be vice-president”. His selection would force the Democrats to give up a Senate seat as it would be Republican Ohio governor John Kasich who would choose Mr Brown’s replacement until elections are held.

The rising star

Long compared to Mr Obama for his charisma and celebrity in the Democratic party, Cory Booker, 47, could be an appealing choice if Mrs Clinton is looking to reach out to younger and African-American voters. A New Jersey senator, Mr Booker first shot to national prominence as the mayor of Newark, where he helped reduce the city’s crime rate (and saved one of his constituents from a house fire). In the Senate, he has been an active advocate for closing loopholes in background checks for gun sales.

Yet his candidacy would pose the same problem as Mr Brown’s: picking him would allow Chris Christie, the Republican New Jersey governor, to select Mr Booker’s replacement for the remainder of his term. While Mr Booker has been an active surrogate for Mrs Clinton on the campaign trail, he insisted last week he was not being vetted for the vice-presidential spot.

The quiet operator

The US secretary of labour Thomas Perez, 54, has little national name recognition. But some Democrats say he would be Mrs Clinton’s perfect running mate, combining the strong points of the other contenders, with none of their weaknesses. A longtime civil rights lawyer who formerly worked for Ted Kennedy, Mr Perez is viewed by Democrats as one of the more effective members of Mr Obama’s cabinet. He has been a strong campaigner for raising the minimum wage and has a good relationship with the country’s unions — two résumé points that could endear him to some of Mr Sanders’ leftist supporters.

A Hispanic-American, Mr Perez could also help Mrs Clinton rally the Latino vote, while his selection would leave no vulnerabilities for Democrats in the Senate. On the flipside, some Democrats say Mrs Clinton should pick a running mate with more celebrity in order to better detract attention from Mr Trump.