Vice President Kamala Harris had a steadier 2023 as she and President Joe Biden prepare for the 2024 election, but being a steady hand for the president is different from reasserting herself as his heir apparent before the next Democratic presidential primary.
Harris has been under a political microscope as the first woman and minority woman vice president, in addition to being Biden’s apparent successor. But some of the instincts and tendencies that undermined her own presidential campaign in 2020 returned when she arrived at the White House.
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Three years later, although she continues to be criticized, she has appeared to start looking past 2024 to 2028 — and beyond — as she tries to differentiate herself from Biden while still supporting him.
Harris has received “insufficient” recognition for how she has fulfilled her two “consequential” functions, according to vice presidential scholar Joel Goldstein, the Saint Louis University School of Law professor emeritus predicting she is on the “upswing” and will be a help rather than hindrance for Biden next year.
“More than most of her recent predecessors, she has embraced a role as public spokesperson for the administration regarding issues of importance, such as reproductive rights, climate change, gun violence, [and] inclusivity,” Goldstein told the Washington Examiner, “and she has played an important diplomatic role, handling presidential assignments regarding central global and bilateral issues, most recently at the ASEAN meetings, in London at the [artificial intelligence] meetings, and in Dubai regarding climate change, and in her meetings there with Mideast leaders and public statements.”
Harris also broke former Vice President John Calhoun’s record this month when she cast her 32nd Senate tiebreaking vote as the chamber’s president.
Nevertheless, Harris still requires “a complete public relations make-over” in 2024, according to Cesar Conda, former chief of staff to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and a founding partner of Republican lobbying firm Navigators Global.
“She is perceived as not ready to take over if Biden steps aside and the VP needs to make a resolution to do better when called on to communicate a message,” Conda said. “She has been widely made fun of for her lackluster communication skills and may need some work with a communications specialist to rehabilitate her image amongst American voters.”
Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg disagreed, underscoring how he is “heartened” by Harris appearing more comfortable as 81-year-old Biden’s vice president, responding to the root causes of immigration to spearheading space policy.
“Our system requires the vice president to be ready to go, if anything were to happen with the president, regardless of the age of the president or the physical condition of the president,” Rosenberg said. “It’s been great to see her expanded responsibilities and her seeming adroit management of it this year, and so, for next year, she just needs to keep taking on more and more — and keep doing a good job on her portfolio.”
By demonstrating her “unwavering support” for Biden, Harris is amassing “a national network of allies” within the Democratic Party who might back a second presidential campaign of hers in the future, according to University of Wisconsin, Madison political science professor and Elections Research Center Director Barry Burden.
“Because in-person campaigning by Democrats was largely suspended in 2020, she was unable to do this in the first Biden-Harris effort,” Burden said.
Goldstein, of Saint Louis University, added: “She also has championed issues and perspectives of importance to many voters, including important Democratic constituencies, and has discharged high-level assignments as public spokesperson and diplomat in a visible and effective way, factors which should enhance her appeal to the Democratic base, as well as strengthen appreciation of her as a trusted successor.”
But the problem for Harris is Democrats have a “deep” bench of potential presidential candidates, according to Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin, citing Govs. Andy Beshear (D-KY), Gavin Newsom (D-CA), and Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), even Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), for whom Hankin worked in 2020.
“I cannot imagine that people are going to be like, ‘Well, it’s her turn. I might wait another eight years,'” the Lincoln Park Strategies president said. “If Biden wins, and regardless of what her standing is, I just can’t imagine that she’s going to get a pass and just waltz into the nomination in 2028.”
Simultaneously, Harris’s support of Biden has been increasingly tested, for example, by disputed tensions over her portfolio and the president’s approach to the Israel–Hamas war as Democrats scrutinize the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.
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Nonetheless, the Biden campaign remains confident the president and Harris will “continue building” a winning bid that amplifies “the enormous stakes” concerning “our personal freedoms, our economy, and our democracy,” according to spokesman Seth Schuster.
“Next year, you’ll see a campaign laser-focused on the real issues that matter to the American people and aggressive efforts to meet voters where they are — undistracted from the beltway pundits who’ve counted us out before,” Schuster said.
