President Biden’s lackluster debate performance has shifted attention to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has begun to take a more visible role in the campaign as November approaches.
Ms Harris suddenly appears to be playing a crucial role in the final stages of the campaign, a turning point for a vice president who many critics have panned as a potential liability for Democrats in November’s presidential election.
Negativity surrounding Harris even prompted calls for the vice president to step aside from the campaign trail as recently as March, with a Washington Post column urging her to do so “for the good of the country.”
Now, some are speculating that Harris could vault to the top of the list of candidates following Biden’s debate performance, even though the vice president’s name recognition was already beginning to grow before last week.
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Vice President Kamala Harris said his swearing habits have worsened since taking office. (AP Photo/Molly Gash)
Media outlets have also taken notice, with a flurry of positive coverage of the vice president in recent months. The Hill reported that Harris is “Biden’s secret weapon in North Carolina,” and that the vice president visited the state for the fifth time last month and has led outreach to the Democratic-majority black community, which Biden has struggled to attract in his rematch against former President Trump.
“She’s one of the administration’s best spokespeople for the black community,” Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons told The Hill. “The president has appealed to the black community, but obviously the vice president has a different kind of appeal.”
The Los Angeles Times reported in February that Harris had finally “found her groove,” citing her appeal to young voters and her speaking out on issues like abortion.
“She has become the Democratic Party’s top fundraiser, an emissary to groups cold toward Biden, particularly Black and younger voters, and emerged as the administration’s most powerful voice on abortion, women’s health and, as Harris puts it, the threat Trump poses to liberty and individual choice,” the article said.
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A few months later, The New York Times reported that “Harris’ moment has arrived,” calling her the “perfect messenger” to campaign on issues like “reproductive rights.”
Several polls have shown the vice president’s position is strengthening, with a Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted last month finding him gaining support among key demographics, including a 67% approval rating among Black voters.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris wave to the crowd as they stand on stage during the Reproductive Freedom Campaign rally at George Mason University on January 23, 2024 in Manassas, Virginia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The poll marks a turnaround for Harris, who trailed Biden among black voters before the 2020 primary, but now leads Biden by four points in the key Democratic base.
“She’s great at activating the dynamic base that the Democratic Party really needed: young black voters and black women, which are bases that Democrats can never take for granted,” Democratic strategist Tripp Yang told Politico.
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Vice President Harris’ profile has only grown since her debate performance, appearing on multiple networks to defend the president within minutes of the debate. She has also been active on the campaign trail, making stops in Las Vegas, Utah and Southern California in the days following the debate.
Vice President Kamala Harris is touring the country on her Economic Opportunity Tour. (Lee Vogel/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
While many leading Democrats have publicly supported Biden remaining the party’s nominee, there are growing calls for Harris to lead the field. A New York Times opinion piece the day after the debate declared that Harris “could win this election,” while a Vox Media column asked, “What about Kamala?”
Former Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan became one of the first nationally prominent Democrats to publicly endorse Harris to succeed Biden.
“The band-aid needs to be ripped off! There’s too much at stake,” Ryan said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that Harris had “become pretty comfortable with the job.”
“She will beat Trump in the debates, highlight the issues of choice, energize our base, bring back young voters and bring about a generational change,” said Ryan, who lost to Republican J.D. Vance in the 2022 Senate election. “The time is now!”
Former Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan has said Biden should drop out of the presidential race. (Tyler Olson/Fox News Digital)
Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett on Tuesday became the first sitting Democrat in Congress to call on Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
“Our first priority must be considering who has the best hope of saving our democracy from a tyrannical takeover by a criminal and his allies,” he said in a statement. “The risks are too great to jeopardize a Trump victory, and too great to think we can now overturn what we couldn’t overturn in a year, what we couldn’t overturn in the debates.”
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Unlike Ryan, Doggett did not say whether he would prefer Harris or another Democrat to replace Biden.
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
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