Kamala Harris is campaigning. But for what office? A total of15 vice presidents managed to subtract the "vice" from their title, including Joe Biden himself, second in command to former President Barack Obama during his two terms. The current president's age and repeated lapses, however, hint that Harris could climb to the presidency without having to lead her own ticket in 2028.
Although the White House assures that the president is healthy, a 77% of Americans expressed concern about the president's physical and mental state. Should Biden become unable to serve, resign or die, which has happened eight times in history, Harris would become head of state, as establishes the line of succession marked by the Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act.
But if Harris were to step up sooner than expected, most American voters would seem willing to support her, with already at least one group committed to shelling out $10 million to her potential campaign. Her support was affirmed by the latest Harvard Caps-Harris Poll: 44% of Democratic supporters would prefer Harris to be the Democratic candidate if Biden decides to drop out of the 2024 race.
That figure is exactly double that of those who would opt for Robert Kennedy Jr. It is even further ahead of the 7% that Marianne Williamson achieved in the same poll. In other words, Vice President Harris is already ahead of two candidates who are competing for the Democratic nomination, although she is still far from the 62% who say they would vote for Biden in the Democratic primaries.
If the former senator for California were to face the Republican candidate leading in the polls, Donald Trump, she would achieve 38% of support against 47% of the former president. The 14% of undecided voters could allow her to win. If she were to compete against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, she would also have a margin of undecideds large enough to defeat him. Although DeSantis surpasses her in voting intentions (41% against 39%), the undecided (20%) could take her to the White House.
Red numbers
Harris is the worst-rated vice president in history, something she will have to overcome if she wants to occupy the Oval Office. She garnered a 49% negative opinion rating in a June survey by NBC News, a net rating of -17. This is the poorest result in the last 30 years.
Five July polls collected by FiveThirtyEight magnify the problem for the veep: in all of them she garnered more disapproval than approval among Americans. The net result ranges from -9 to -15, getting higher the more recent the poll.
According to the historical average of polls recorded by the site, Harris' disapproval exceeded her approval for the first time in 2021. That was in October, by 1.2%. Since then, this difference grew to a high of 15.1%, and dropped to 12.7% on Aug. 3. Since October, she has always had more disapproval than approval.
In the trenches
"Most people don't know what vice presidents do," political commentator Ashley Allison said as she tried to explain Harris' lack of popularity on CNN. The former Biden campaign contributor also blamed these poor results on the fact that "she's a woman, she's a black woman and it's the easy thing to do to say she's the attack dog, to go after her."
WATCH: CNN contributor Ashley Allison with the shameless smear of Republicans on State of the Union this morning. Allison suggests Republicans are being racist and sexist when criticizing Kamala Harris.
"I'll just say, I think that this is happening for a couple of reasons: Most… pic.twitter.com/loLShGw1Zi
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 6, 2023
Allison also acknowledged that "our inmmigration policies are in crisis." But, she argued, it's not Harris' fault. This despite Biden assigning her, as one of his first actions, the challenge of addressing the immigration problem at the southern border. Allison contends that the vice president is addressing the underlying reasons, not whether the number of encounters goes up or down. Harris took months after taking office to first visit to the Mexican border.
The Democrat has stumbled numerous times during her current term, though these past few months her missteps have included insinuating that the population should be reduced, her remarks about slavery in the Florida school curriculum and her subsequent refusal to debate this issue with DeSantis.
The New York Times defines it as a "new role" for the vice president in the campaign, a more active and offensive one, which allows her to engage in discursive battles with the Republican Party, leaving Biden far from the mud. This new prominence and its possible implications for the country's future are not going unnoticed: "Anyone is better than President Kamala Harris," Republican candidate Nikki Haley said in an interview last month. Haley later insisted when asked by reporters if she had gotten her name confused: "A vote for President Biden is a vote for President Harris."
2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley: “Anyone is better than President Kamala Harris. Anyone.”
Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade: “You mean President Biden?”
Haley: “Well, I think it’s President Harris.” pic.twitter.com/XUUdcbO92u
— The Recount (@therecount) July 7, 2023
According to statements collected by the Daily Mail, DeSantis also referred to a possible Harris presidency. The governor asserted that she was Biden's best anti-impeachment insurance, because the fear of her holding the highest office in the land would lead congressmen to avoid the process. He also stated that the election had to be won, because if Biden was elected:
Heck, you may end up with Kamala as president even.
