Kamala Harris prepares for reelection: ‘Liability’ or ‘leading messenger’?
Naomi Lim
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Vice President Kamala Harris being underscored in President Joe Biden‘s reelection announcement video was welcomed by her supporters and detractors alike.
But as the country’s first black female vice president seeks reelection alongside its oldest president, she is bracing for more scrutiny than ever before.
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Harris’s unpopularity is “a liability” for Biden, particularly since he is also struggling in the polls, according to Republican strategist Charlie Black.
“His age means that the GOP will put more focus on her, especially her very liberal positions on issues,” the Prime Policy Group founding chairman told the Washington Examiner. “I read today that the Biden campaign will attempt to build up her image to alleviate her negative impact.”
Biden’s average 41% favorability-52% unfavorability is higher than Harris’s 38%-54% rating, and two days into their campaign, Biden’s age has already been raised by Republicans, political commentators, and reporters.
“Biden is a relic of the past and a failed leader,” pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC spokeswoman Erin Perrine said, though the Florida GOP governor has not launched a campaign. “America needs fresh conservative leadership to bring us back to strength and prosperity, and that leader is Gov. Ron DeSantis.”
“We can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris,” former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, a declared candidate, told Fox News, “because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely.”
Vice presidents have been crucial in previous reelection campaigns because presidents have traditionally adopted “some form of a Rose Garden strategy,” either “by necessity” or because being perceived as presidential is “good politics,” according to vice president expert and Saint Louis University law professor emeritus Joel Goldstein.
“Much of her work has focused on working on and talking about issues of importance to Democratic constituencies and reachable Democratic voters,” Goldstein said. “She could play an outsized role in energizing the Democratic base, which would help the ticket.”
“There also will be greater attention on her due to President Biden’s age,” he added. “On the other hand, if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, the age issue largely disappears because Biden and Trump are of similar ages, or it becomes an issue for both tickets.”
A Biden campaign spokesman defended Harris as “absolutely an asset,” emphasizing how “she’s proven herself to be not just a leading messenger” but “somebody that has the convening power to really make [abortion access] a critical issue.”
“So you’re going to hear her talking a lot about that,” the staffer said. “She just fits in really well alongside a lot of priorities, core tenets of the president’s campaign announcement around freedom, whether it be the freedom to vote or democracy at large.”
Democratic strategist Tracy Sefl amplified Harris’s advocacy for abortion access since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, an issue she addressed on Biden’s launch day with a campaign event at her alma mater Howard University.
“Their position reflects the majority of Americans’ belief that bodily autonomy is a fundamental right — and this, as we’ve seen, is a winning issue on the ballot,” Sefl said. “Highlighting her role and voice in the administration is a reminder to voters that their reelection may well be won on the issue of choice.”
Former Biden senior adviser Paul Henderson, Harris’s chief of administration when she was San Francisco‘s district attorney, hopes the White House and campaign “unleashes” her in Washington, D.C., and on the trail.
“I feel like the Biden-Harris administration is aggressively expanding the role of the VP recently, and as important as it is that Kamala Harris be a smart-on-crime prosecutor, it’s just as important that she reflect and represent her personal values aligned with the Democratic Party on key voting issues like abortion rights, gun control, and the economy,” he said. “It doesn’t diminish her prosecutorial experience; rather, it builds on it and gives the VP broader depth and authority.”
After spending the afternoon with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at NASA‘s Goddard Space Flight Center, Harris criticized Republicans passing abortion restrictions across the country as “extremist so-called leaders.”
“Well, I say: I trust the women of America. I trust the people of America to make decisions about their selves,” she said Tuesday. “So, don’t get in our way because if you do, we’re going to stand up and we’re going to organize and we’re going to speak up and we’re going to say, ‘We’re not having that. We not playing that.'”
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Biden dismissed concerns about his polling numbers and age, contending that “everybody running for reelection in this time has been in the same position” and that “there’s a job to finish.”
“If I guess how old I am, I can’t even say the number. It doesn’t register with me,” he said Wednesday. “One of the things that people are going to find out, they’re going to see a race, and they’re going to judge whether or not I have it or don’t have it. I respect them taking a hard look at it. I’d take a hard look at it as well. I took a hard look at it before I decided to run.”