During Kamala Harris’ visit to the African Methodist Episcopal Women's Missionary Society convention in Florida last week, she derided Gov. Ron DeSantis’ bad-faith demand that she debate him on the merits of slavery.
For far too many Americans, Harris’ scorching performance in Florida was the first time they’d heard from the vice president in a while.
“I will tell you there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: There were no redeeming qualities of slavery,” Harris said to raucous applause. “We will not stop calling out and fighting back against extremist so-called leaders who try to prevent our children from learning our true and full history.”
For far too many Americans, and especially for Black voters who celebrated her election, Harris’ scorching performance in Florida was the first time they’d heard from the vice president in awhile.
That isn’t because she’s been standing still. Harris has maintained a steady travel schedule in recent months, criss-crossing the country in ways that stay under the radar and out of the headlines. Until recently, the Biden administration seemed only too happy to keep it that way.
As Joe Biden’s running mate, Harris was a history-making choice, appealing directly to the voters Biden most needed to secure in 2020. That’s why it’s so confusing that Team Biden has seemed so uncertain how best to use Harris’ political and policy talents. With 2024 polls indicating that Biden is still struggling to sell his victories to the American people, the White House can’t afford to keep sidelining Harris. The Democratic ticket can only win as a team.
Harris’ powerful remarks in Orlando are a reminder that the former California senator didn’t make it to the top of American politics by mistake. She has rhetorical skills, and she communicated her shock and frustration with Republicans in a way that Biden has so far failed to communicate.
But look back over Biden’s first term, and instead of finding widespread acknowledgment of Harris’ gifts, you're more likely to find a near-unending stream of Beltway gossip columns criticizing her for an apparent slow start to her vice presidency, for reportedly being a difficult boss, for allegedly sowing dysfunction in an otherwise smooth-sailing Biden administration. Harris faced most of that criticism without any visible efforts by her boss to correct the record. That was a sharp turn from the way the Obama administration defended then-Vice President Biden.
Biden’s silence was so noticeable that it led to rumblings that Harris was at risk of being replaced on the 2024 ticket. It wasn’t until April that the Biden team began working publicly to repair Harris’ battered image, but by that point, her approval ratings were at historic lows. Some Democratic strategists are arguing that the Biden campaign has been making a costly mistake.
Instead of finding widespread acknowledgement of Harris’ gifts, you're more likely to find a near-unending stream of Beltway gossip columns criticizing her.
“Kamala Harris is the best voice they have for African American outreach,” said Democratic strategist and commentator Michael Starr Hopkins. “She says things that Biden can’t say, in a way that he can’t say it, while making inroads with disillusioned Black voters. Her strength is prosecuting the case.”
That’s an issue Biden’s team is acutely concerned about. Black voters undeniably put Biden over the top in key 2020 states, including Georgia and Michigan. Now Democrats are concerned that a 10-point drop in Black voter turnout in 2022 presages an even worse turnout in 2024.
Black voters celebrated the historic election of Harris to the vice presidency in 2020, only to see her practically disappear. At the same time, the administration has also been criticized for lackluster communications efforts into Black communities, something Harris and her team advocated as a key priority on the 2020 campaign trail. The results of that outreach speak for themselves — so why have Democrats forgotten about it?
Harris has been working — quietly, behind the scenes, often at the Biden team’s request — to address Black men’s growing alienation from the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, those private meetings aren’t doing much to change the narrative that Democrats are taking Black voters for granted. If Democrats want the kind of work Harris is doing to bear real fruit, then they need to take Harris public.
Harris’ trip to Florida is a reminder that the vice president can still energize crowds and capture media headlines. It’s also a reminder that Democrats have been squandering a historic vice presidency apparently out of fear that she’ll upstage the more low-key Biden.
Harris’ trip to Florida is a reminder that the vice president can still energize crowds.
After months of brutal headlines and speculation about her removal from the ticket, Harris’ response to DeSantis is an indication that she’s itching to enter the 2024 political battle. For a Biden campaign stuck in the summer doldrums, Harris brings needed energy.
The Harris who stepped back into the spotlight a week ago was on fire, on-message and the political attack dog Biden’s aw-shucks campaign needs. If Biden is serious about prosecuting the case against an increasingly extremist Republican Party, then he needs to reintroduce America to the prosecutor he ran with: Vice President Kamala Harris.