Some Democrats are questioning whether Vice President Kamala Harris has the political chops to carry the party’s mantle after President Biden, citing her low-profile in the administration, her well-publicized stumbles with the media and the rough-and-tumble political environment, according to a report.
“Every fiber in my body wants her to be president; everything I’ve ever fought for is for someone like her to be president,” a South Carolina Democratic strategist told the Washington Post.
“I think she’s a good person with a good heart who can lead the country. But I don’t know that the people who have to make that happen feel that way right now. I don’t know that she has what it takes to get over the hump in our present environment,” the person said.
The halfway point of Biden’s first term marks a crucial moment for the vice president.
If the 80-year-old commander-in-chief runs for reelection as widely expected, Harris would likely remain a focal point of his campaign — but if Biden doesn’t, she would be propelled into the spotlight and face the intense scrutiny and criticism that comes with it, the outlet reported.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren underscored that indecision when she backed away from endorsing Harris as Biden’s running mate in 2024.
“Yes, he should run again,” Warren (D-Mass.) told Boston radio station WGBH last Friday.
Asked if Harris should be on the ticket, Warren replied: “I really want to defer to what makes Biden comfortable on his team.”
Warren added that she likes Harris, but “they have to be a team,” quickly adding that she doesn’t foresee any problems between the two.
“I fully support the president’s and vice president’s re-election together, and never intended to imply otherwise,” Warren said.
Harris, 58, made history by becoming the first black woman elected vice president, but that distinction could also weigh against her.
Some Democrats fret that Americans are not ready to elect a black woman as president.
“There’s a segment that just will not vote for a woman for president, and there’s another segment that will not vote for an African American. Having two of those check boxes, you’re just going to have a higher threshold regardless,” Erick Allen, chair of the Cobb County (Ga.) Democrats, told the Washington Post.
“Hillary had just one of those checks, and she was able to be vilified and beat up to the point where she couldn’t recover,” he said, referring to Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful runs in 2008 and 2016.
“There are some people in our party who are saying, ‘We already have hurdles. Let’s not create more,’” Allen said.
Democrats are concerned about Biden’s age — he would be 86 at the end of a full second term — but worry whether Harris has the political skills to pull off a successful national campaign.
Some aren’t willing to take the chance.
“I think many Democrats have changed from a 2008 sentiment, or even the feeling in 2012 and 2016, which were about voting for aspiration,” Brady Quirk-Garvan, the former chair of the Charleston County Democratic Party in South Carolina, told the newspaper.
“Democrats at the moment — I don’t hear a lot of chatter about aspiration. I hear about what’s going to guarantee a win, what’s a certainty, what feels safe.,” he said.
Still others say Harris has kept too low of a profile even for a vice president, blaming her lack of visibility on COVID-19 restrictions in the first two years and being kept in Washington to serve as the tie-breaking vote in the 50-50 divided Senate.
But others say her low-profile was by design, especially after her cringe-worthy response to NBC News’ Lester Holt during a June 2021 trip to Guatemala when pressed why she had yet to visit the southern border as the administration’s immigration czar.
“I haven’t been to Europe,” she answered in an apparent attempt at a pithy retort.
J.A. Moore, a South Carolina lawmaker who endorsed Harris for president in 2020, said she would benefit from having a higher profile.
“I think the main thing is I wish she was out there and more visible,” Moore said. “They want to see that representation, they want to see her face more and see her connection with what the administration is doing.”
Harris’ office declined to comment to the Washington Post.
But others defended her, saying she has become a lightning rod for criticism from Republicans.
“People are poised to pounce on anything — any misstep, any gaffe, anything she says — and so she’s probably not getting the benefit of the doubt,” Jacquelyn Bettadapur, the former head of the Cobb County Democrats in Georgia.
She said many Democrats “don’t know enough about what she’s doing” while admitting “it doesn’t help that she’s not [that] adept as a communicator.”