The White House is preparing for the massive role Kamala
Harris will have to play in the 2024 campaign. She has taken multiple hits as
vice president, and her political stock has plummeted following criticism on
multiple fronts.
Yet she remains a key player in Biden world, with even more
importance in a reelection campaign where the 80-year-old president’s age will
be a key issue with voters.
Now the White House is focused on building Harris up as it
prepares for what could be a rematch next year with former President Trump.
“There is an effort to re-launch her. I think with the age
thing, the VP becomes more important, and it’s not necessarily to improve her,
but to make her higher profile,” said a former Democratic campaign official.
Speaking about the Biden team’s prior work to diminish
Harris’s profile, the Democrat added, “I don’t think there are any regrets.”
Harris was featured frequently in Biden’s reelection
launch video this week. She and second gentleman Doug Emhoff appear just 15
seconds into the three-minute clip, a sign the campaign will not shy away
from her as an asset who can connect with key voting blocs.
White House officials believe she has hit her stride as a
leading voice in the administration on fighting back against GOP efforts to
restrict abortion access. Hours after Biden launched his campaign, Harris spoke
at a political event focused on reproductive rights, where she was greeted with
chants of four more years.
But
while Harris’s allies are keen to promote her as a boost to the campaign,
Republicans appear just as eager to frame her as a drag on the ticket,
especially through the lens of Biden’s age.
“I
think 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, because the idea
that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is
likely,” Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said this week.
“But really, are we willing to say we’re OK with a President
Kamala Harris?” Haley asked.
Her comments underscore a looming balancing act for the
Biden campaign: How to reassure voters about Harris when she is just a
heartbeat away from the presidency without elevating her too much and drawing
more attention to the issue of Biden’s age.
“Of course the Biden campaign is not going to make Harris
more prominent, because they’re not going to want to send a signal that Harris
is more important, because something might happen to Biden in office,” said
Danny Hayes, a political science professor at George Washington University.
“Voters
are still voting first and foremost for or against Biden, not Harris,” he
added.
Harris entered the 2020 presidential race as a top-tier
candidate for the nomination. But her campaign was plagued by personnel and
messaging issues, and perhaps her most notable moment was a clash with Biden on
the debate stage over student busing policy.
In her first year as vice president, Harris faced criticism
over frequent staffing turnover and her handling of migration from Central
America, a complex issue Biden tasked her with leading. Harris became a
punching bag for Republicans who blamed her for problems at the southern
border, and she drew criticism from Democrats when she told migrants not to
come to the US.
Harris’s favorability rating has hovered in the low 40%
range for much of her time as vice president. A Fox News poll published this
week showed her favorability rating at 41%, including 73% among Democrats. The
same poll put Biden’s favorability at 44%.
Harris has seemingly found her footing over the past year,
leading the administration’s fight against abortion restrictions in the wake of
the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. In recent weeks she made
high-profile trips to Africa and Tennessee, the latter coming after three
Democratic state lawmakers were targeted for expulsion over gun violence
protests.
“There is an effort to lift her up around the apparatus, but
the other part of it is people are just now paying attention. She didn’t just
start traveling, she didn’t just start lifting up these issues,” a source close
to the vice president’s office told The Hill.
Harris has also taken on issues related to foreign policy,
climate and small businesses. Over a year ago, she started traveling two to
three times a week, including on five overseas trips.
“I’m actually thrilled to see her hitting a good groove,
which to me sort of makes sense at this time of the presidential campaign. On
abortion rights but also guns, you’ve seen her step up in a way that we haven’t
up until this point,” said David Thomas, a partner at Mehlman Consulting and
former deputy director of legislative affairs for former Vice President Al
Gore.
Taking on those issues, especially reproductive rights, has
elevated Harris’s profile and required her to traverse the country and meet
with local officials, which can all be an asset to the 2024 ticket.
“Despite what maybe people think of her inside the beltway,
she really excites the Democratic base, and that’s why we see her out in the
country more often, talking to Democrats,” Thomas said.
After Harris’s challenges with staffing early on in the
administration, she has brought on two top aides who her supporters say will be
pivotal to her inner circle as the campaign picks up. Kelsey Smith, a longtime
aide to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was hired as director of scheduling and
advice for the vice president in January, and Lorraine Voles just hit her
one-year mark as chief of staff.
There is also a belief Harris will be aided by the presence
of Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who worked with Harris
when she was a California senator and when she ran for president in 2020.
“She’s got this challenge of how many reboots are they going
do,” said one Democratic strategist. “For Kamala, it’s always going to come
down to can she put a good team together and execute.”
