It’s time for Kamala Harris to shine
Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota Thursday, marking the first time that a US president or vice president has publicly visited an abortion provider.
After Democrats spent years trying to sidestep this issue for fear of alienating Catholic voters, the Biden administration is now a staunch defender of reproductive rights following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade and the right to abortion nationwide.
The stop in Minnesota marks part of the vice president’s “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour.
The event marks a turning point in the relationship between President Joe Biden and his vice president. Until recently, Biden has not done much to bolster his controversial partner.
He saddled her with some of the thorniest issues that the administration faced (such as immigration), and many members of Harris’ inner circle claimed she had been sidelined by the president. Meanwhile, Republicans, along with much of the press, pilloried her for making public statements likened to “word salad,” and seized on the dysfunction among her staff.
Last year, NBC found 49 percent of voters had a negative view of Harris, compared to a 32 percent who had a positive view of her.
The net-negative 17 rating was the lowest for a vice president in the history of the poll.
Now, as the election heats up, Biden seems to see that Harris could be pivotal to his reelection campaign. Although vice presidents have not typically determined the outcome of elections, in this particular case Harris’ performance in the coming months will be essential.
That, of course, is due to ongoing concerns about Biden’s age (at 81, he’s the oldest president ever) and whether he will be able to govern effectively for a second term, an issue that has been consistently registering in the polls.
There is every reason to believe the election will be extraordinarily close, coming down to slivers of the electorate in just a handful of swing states.
The more that Harris can start to shine, and the more she can convince the public that she has what it takes to be a national leader, the better the odds will be that Democrats may enjoy another four years of power in the White House.
At a time when support for Biden is shaky among some key constituencies, including young and Black voters, the vice president will be on the campaign trail trying to connect with these voters.
She has also been spending time behind the scenes, trying to break out of Biden’s campaign bubble to find out what problems need to be addressed, and how to get Democrats excited about backing the president again.
Stopping in Minnesota is one pillar of this strategy. Few issues have been more energizing to suburban women than the Dobbs decision, which has led to a draconian rollback of reproductive services in many red states.
If anyone thought that there were limits to how far states would go, the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision undermining in vitro fertilization (IVF) has been another wakeup call. (Following swift backlash, the state legislature then passed a law aiming to provide criminal immunity to providers and patients for the destruction of or damage to embryos.)
Harris has taken to the stump to speak directly about a number of other contentious issues, including the Israel-Hamas War and voting rights with a level of fervor and directness that doesn’t always come naturally to the president.
Her voice will be especially important given that the Biden reelection team seems to want to preserve the preisdent’s energy and focus on the most important events.
Harris will also be important in taking on the more traditional role of a battering ram against the opposition. Historically, presidents running for reelection have counted on the vice president to go after the other ticket. Because they are not at the center of the contest, there is more room for VPs to fully embrace the hardball partisan tactics necessary to win without feeling the countervailing pressure of appearing dignified and civil.