What has Kamala Harris accomplished as Biden’s vice president?

President Biden’s disappointing efficiency in his June 27 debate with Donald Trump has dragged his second-in-command, Vice President Kamala Harris, again into the highlight. She was already struggling to show her price as a operating mate regardless of her lackluster approval rankings and criticisms over how she has outlined her position to date. Now, Harris is confronted with defending her operating mate whereas being floated as one in all his potential replacements.

Harris has been “central to conversations amongst some Democrats about whether or not Biden ought to step apart,” stated The Hill, “a transfer that may doubtless transfer Harris to the highest of the ticket in November.” The scenario has put Harris in a “difficult spot” as she tries to “reassure nervous Democrats about their probabilities on this yr’s election whereas positioning herself as a possible future chief of the social gathering.” 

It’s not unusual for the second-in-command to battle to show themselves in a task largely outlined by behind-the-scenes work. Harris’ “critics and detractors alike acknowledge that the vice presidency is meant to be a supporting position,” The New York Instances stated, and “a lot of her predecessors have labored to make themselves related, as nicely.” Nonetheless, these cautious of Biden’s age are placing extra intense scrutiny on what the vp has been as much as. She has taken the lead on a number of essential contentious points whereas Biden focuses his efforts elsewhere.

Abortion rights

Abortion has develop into a central situation for Democrats following the Supreme Court docket’s determination to overturn federal abortion rights. Harris spent a lot of the 2022 midterms interesting to voters with guarantees to prioritize and defend reproductive rights. Since Roe fell, she has “been subtly making herself the voice with a megaphone nobody can ignore,” stated Philip Elliott at Time, including that Harris has met with lawmakers from no less than 18 states to debate the problem. As Biden introduced his 2024 candidacy, Harris gave a fiery speech at a reproductive freedom rally at her alma mater, Howard College. She blasted “extremist so-called leaders” for passing restrictive abortion bans.

She wants a severe popularity enhance, “which explains why Harris has made abortion rights a central piece of her political identification,” Elliott continued. In spite of everything, outrage over Roe v. Wade “powered Democratic candidates to unexpectedly sturdy showings within the midterm elections,” and lots of consider Harris “performed no small position in that accomplishment,” Elliott stated.

This yr, Harris continued to place abortion on the forefront of her work. In March 2024, she toured a Deliberate Parenthood clinic in Minnesota that gives abortion providers. The White Home stated it was the primary time in U.S. historical past {that a} president or vp has visited a clinic that gives abortion providers. The tour was the sixth cease on her “Struggle for Reproductive Freedoms” tour, which she began in January to “push for extra abortion entry within the wake of the overruling of Roe v. Wade,” stated NBC Information.

Immigration and the southern border

Biden tapped Harris within the early months of their time period to spearhead efforts to handle the disaster on the U.S.-Mexico border. It took her months to make her first and solely go to to the world, and the delay elicited backlash from lawmakers on either side. Her journey to Guatemala and Mexico was in the end overshadowed by an interview with Lester Holt of NBC Information the place she “awkwardly downplayed the urgency” of the go to, The Washington Put up stated. Since then, Harris has borne the brunt of the criticism from Republicans because the border disaster worsens; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) despatched a number of buses of asylum seekers from the border to the VP’s house in protest.

After withstanding the extraordinary backlash of her perceived inaction, Harris remains to be making an attempt to handle the basis causes of the immigration downside. Her Central America Ahead initiative has “yielded greater than $4.2 billion in personal sector commitments” to help creating native jobs and different measures to gradual the stream of mass migration, CNN stated final yr. Some consultants have lauded Harris’ potential to safe the investments “as her most seen motion within the area to this point however have cautioned concerning the sturdiness of these investments over the long run,” CNN stated.

Harris nonetheless has an uphill battle forward of her to reverse public opinion about her work, or lack thereof, on the border. In January 2023, the Border Patrol union lambasted her lack of progress. “If you got a job two years in the past with the specific aim of lowering unlawful immigration, and then you definitely sit round and do nothing whereas unlawful immigration explodes to ranges by no means seen earlier than, you ought to be fired and changed,” the union stated on X.

Voting rights

Harris was additionally on the forefront of the administration’s pursuit to codify voting rights protections. She pushed for Congress to cross the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, which might have prolonged the protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and required federal approval for some native election legislation modifications. The VP “dove into” the “probability to make her mark on a vastly necessary situation,” Eugene Daniels stated in  Politico. To additional that aim, Harris “helped craft political coalitions with civil rights leaders, constructed exterior strain on Congress, and engaged privately with lawmakers.” In the end, her work “hit a brick wall” when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and now-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) rejected proposed modifications to Senate procedures to cease a Republican filibuster.

Harris’ work main as much as the stalled laws grew to become “a microcosm of her stint as vp: one outlined by sharp moments, mishaps, public drama, personal work and a contact of unhealthy political luck,” Daniels stated.

What’s subsequent for Harris?

The vp’s political abilities “can be put to the check” because the president runs for reelection, stated Chris Megerian at The Related Press. Whereas the second-in-command is “hardly ever decisive in reelection efforts, Harris is poised to be an exception,” particularly as a result of she is already main the cost on abortion, “Democrats’ most potent situation.” As Biden ages, she’ll face heightened “scrutiny over whether or not she’s able to step into the highest job if vital,” Megerian stated.

With such excessive stakes, “Biden must make the case to his social gathering — and, extra necessary, to independents and reasonable Republicans — why Harris is your best option to succeed him,” Thomas Friedman stated in The New York Instances. “On the similar time, Harris has to make the case for herself, ideally by displaying extra forcefully what she will be able to do.”

After a particular counsel’s report intensified scrutiny over Biden’s “age and cognitive decline,” Democrats want to debate “the Kamala downside,” stated Mark Hemingway at The Federalist. Harris is “an nearly full nonentity” relating to coverage however remains to be “actively disliked by voters.” And whereas Democrats is not going to change her, that may be “the sensible political transfer,” Hemingway stated. A operating mate “who’s capable of vigorously marketing campaign could possibly be the distinction between Biden’s reelection and Trump: The Revenging.”

Biden hasn’t proven curiosity in exiting the race following June’s first presidential debate debacle, but when he did, the “likeliest various to the present ticket stays one led by Harris,” The Wall Road Journal stated. That path carries important danger as a result of “Harris’ ballot numbers are roughly as lackluster as Biden’s,” however she is “fashionable sufficient amongst Democrats — significantly amongst girls and Black voters — that casting her apart might trigger resentment and division throughout the social gathering.” If Biden chooses to remain on the ticket, Harris can be “beneath much more strain to show to voters she is able to serve if wanted.”