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The appointment of a woman of colour as Vice President was historic. But Kamala Harris has since faded into the background
IT’S BEEN A LONG few years in politics since a video of Kamala Harris showed her celebrating victory in the last US election. Three days into a bitterly contested count, she is walking through the park, casually dressed, when the result is finally called the Democrats’ way. ‘We did it, we did it, Joe,’ she says into her phone. ‘You’re going to be the next President of the United States.’
It is an iconic moment befitting a ground-breaking figure. Harris is the first woman and woman of colour to be Vice President. Her record as a glass-ceiling smasher is long-standing – in her home state of California she became the first Black woman to be district attorney and the first Black person to serve as attorney general, the highest legal office in the state.
Yet, nowadays, Harris is viewed, even by some in her own party, as a political liability. A more brutal assessment from across the political aisle is that she is the worst Vice President in living memory.
As Biden, 81, heads towards a battle against Donald Trump this November, there is increasing concern about the President’s age. A stream of high-profile misspeaks and fumbles are reflected in a recent poll showing that 61% of Democrat supporters who voted for him in 2020 now believe he is ‘too old’ to be President again.
Attention is turning to Harris, who, as his running mate again, would likely be next in line. But she is even less popular than he is, a rarity for a Vice President.
Consider this New York Post opinion piece from last year which asks, ‘What if someone did persuade Biden to step aside? Well, that might open the way for Harris herself to become the nominee. In other words, out of the pan and into the fire.’
It begs the question, has Harris been as terrible as some are suggesting and can her political reputation be resurrected?
She was propelled into the national consciousness in 2018, when, as a senator, she grilled Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee to the Supreme Court. She was forensic, ferocious and a breath of fresh air. Everything suggested she would be an asset to the Biden presidency and, in time, a natural successor for the biggest job of all.
However, the problems started in her first year as his deputy, with no real sense among the public of what she was doing. Her own aides complained privately that she was being sidelined by Biden, who failed to promote her. But Christin
