What is the future of Kamala Harris as Vice President?
Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram has the latest on speculation surrounding the VP’s political future.
The headlines in November for Vice President Kamala Harris have not been good. The New York Post writes: "Kamala Harris sidelined amid growing tensions with Biden, insiders say -- Vice President Kamala Harris is being increasingly alienated in the White House as her approval ratings plummet."
Even liberal CNN, in an unflattering piece, recently wrote: "Exasperation and dysfunction: Inside Kamala Harris' frustrating start as vice president."
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Meanwhile, a staggering 61% of voters don’t want Joe Biden to run for president again. Given that Biden will more than likely not be the Democratic Party’s nominee in 2024, the question arises what will become of Harris. The answer is that she is most unlikely to ever be the Democrats’ nominee in 2024.
Here are five reasons why.
5. America and Kamala Harris will continue to suffer from bad policy decisions in the next 3 years. President Biden’s approval ratings rank among the worst of any president after just ten months. They include a poll with 37.8% approve and a stunningly high 59% disapproval rating.
There are good reasons for those low ratings, including the worsening state of the economy, the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan in August, the out-of-control border crisis, COVID policy dissatisfaction and policies mandated by the heavy hand of an out-of-control federal government.
The problem for the Harris is that there is no end in sight to those policies. Yes, Afghanistan is fading from view but the poor state of the economy will not.
Rather than deal with inflation, which is getting out of hand, Democrats are pushing another spending bill (which Harris supports) that will only make things worse. And, rather than working to fix our supply chain problems, the harmful effects green energy regulations and COVID mandates imposed by the Biden administration are only making things worse.
Overall, despite their recent election losses in Virginia and elsewhere, Democrats are moving further to the left than where voters want to be. Beyond that, as I have written before on this page, Joe Biden’s approval numbers won’t recover significantly because he does not have the dynamism or charisma necessary to go out and rally America behind him. Indeed, the more he talks, the worse he does.
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Even if Republicans win the House and/or the Senate in 2022, and it could be a rout, there will only to be gridlock for the next two years not the adoption of policies that will help the economy. Indeed, just as we witnessed during the last years of President Obama’s tenure, the occupant of the White House will govern by executive order.
All of that bodes badly for Harris’ presidential hopes.
4. Kamala Harris’ Rough Start. Harris’ current approval ratings are a dismal 28% - far lower than the prior vice president at this juncture in his term. According to the Los Angeles Times, when her ratings were already in the 40s, her ratings "were well under the ratings of three previous vice presidents."
Part of that is the result of Biden’s poor ratings and that we are living in an ever more divided era in which parties are so divided they won’t support the other party office holder under most circumstances.
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However a good deal of Harris’ poor numbers have been caused by Harris herself.
Long before CNN’s headline, stories abounded about her poor management style such as this June article from Politico: "‘Not a healthy environment’: Kamala Harris’ office rife with dissent - There is dysfunction inside the VP’s office, aides and administration officials say. And it’s emanating from the top."
Harris’ performance on the international stage has been rocky as well. It resulted in headlines such as this from ABC9 in the battleground state of Iowa also from last June: "Vice President Harris takes criticism from all sides on first foreign trip."
Harris took enormous criticism for her refusal to truly visit the border despite being named czar of our border crisis. As some have pointed out, Harris has no real interest in being our border czar.
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Her statement that the U.S. ‘must not shy away’ from ‘shameful past’ of Columbus Day didn’t win her any friends either.
In plain terms, Harris has not been a help to herself, which is resulting in a likability crisis for her.
3. Don’t Expect Harris’ Fortunes to Change. Recall that Harris didn’t enter the Iowa Caucus in 2020 because she was not popular among Democrats – most importantly not even among California Democrats. Her polling showed her dropping to fourth and fifth in the California primary before she gave up her presidential hopes.
Why was she unpopular at that time in California? She was viewed as ambitious instead of caring – a political social climber not a leader.
Part of that was because Harris never cultivated California voters. She was handed the nomination for attorney general and senator and never had to work to win the hearts and minds of California voters.
A similar charge was made in a Politico article about her presidential run with the headline "The spectacular collapse of Kamala Harris," which stated "Aides groused about how Harris never built a base." Overall, the article hardly painted a picture of a leader in control of her campaign.
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Her time as California’s attorney general was marked by prosecutorial overreach controversies and her refusal to take positions on key issues – much like her absenteeism on the border. Then when she ran for president, she ran away from the "tough on crime" mantra she claimed as attorney general. That only reinforced her authenticity problem.
All and all, Harris is simply in over her head and she is finding out that on the job learning in the modern media/Internet age is no easy task. In the future, she will be saddled with the Biden administration’s bad record and as the face of its most unpopular immigration border policy.
The vice president also doesn’t have a history of handling difficult political moments – a requisite for presidential nominees – and something she cannot simply laugh off.
2. Kamala Harris’ Shrinking Base. Politicians come and go but those with those with a loyal following tend to have greater prospects. As of this writing, Harris’ base, what little of it existed a year ago, has actually diminished. Her national 28% approval rating, lower than that if you exclude California voters, is an indication that she has a shrinking base. That does not bode well for a presidential candidate especially when what little base a candidate has is a state that Democrats count as a given, i.e. California.
All of which brings us to the final reason Harris won’t be the Democrat’s nominee for president in 2024.
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1. The Democrats’ Overriding Desire to Win. Democrats will want to hold the White House more than ever in 2024 – especially if they lose the House and Senate in 2022. A severely weakened Harris, even if she is president by then, won’t fill that bill for them. Some say that was why she was saddled with the border crisis and why her visibility is so low now.
Rather than lose in 2024, Democrats will move on to a nominee to be named later instead of risking their fortunes with Kamala Harris.