A recent poll by Rasmussen Reports shows that only 39 percent of voters want to see Vice President Kamala Harris on the Democratic ticket for the 2024 election. However, 63 percent of Democrats say Harris should be on the ticket. In comparison, 51 percent of independents and 68 percent of Republicans say she shouldn’t be the Democratic nominee in the upcoming election.
These appalling poll numbers for Harris have been consistent throughout the Biden administration’s tenure. According to the Real Clear Politics polling average, 52.2% disapprove of the vice president. The reasons for her low approval ratings are varied. As Elizabeth Nolan Brown explained, “Harris’ vice presidency has been marked by the same fanfare and then fizzle as her presidential campaign. She got the job, but she couldn’t make the case for herself.”
Part of her failure is political, but also regarding the issues assigned to her portfolio, such as voting rights, abortion, water policy, and, most prominently, the border. The vice president has managed to enrage conservatives and alienate progressives in her work. Leaving no one content.
Of course, mainstream media is trying to pretend that Harris’ is much more popular than she really is, or at least she’s having some sort of rebound in her polling or standing. For example, Politico recently wrote, “Kamala Harris’ bad luck is turning.” Though the Rasmussen poll should end that fantasy.
Not all media outlets agree with this description of events. The New York Times wrote a piece lamenting the vice president’s apparent incapacity to “define” her vice presidency. All this was aptly described by The Washington Post as “Some Democrats are worried about Harris’s political prospects.”
The problems caused by Harris’ unpopularity are helpful to President Joe Biden. As Rich Lowry has explained, Democrats have two important electoral questions in front of them for 2024. “What if Biden runs again? And what if he doesn’t run again?” Since the likeliest event is that if Biden doesn’t, or can’t, run is that Harris will be the presumptive frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, it is quite a problem.
As Michael Brendan Dougherty notes, Biden is the Democrats’ best choice to win the next election. Harris’ dismal approvals mean that she can potentially lose the primary if Biden doesn’t run for reelection. Moreover, there is precedent for an incumbent vice president, though the frontrunner, being challenged for the presidential nomination. Such was the case of then Vice President George H.W. Bush in 1988.
Since Harris is in a weak position, presumably, she is beatable in a primary by other candidates. Nonetheless, as Dougherty mentions, the other potential candidates for the nomination (such as Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) probably would not win a general election.
In sum, despite some media outlets trying to show a Harris rebound, polling seems to indicate that she lacks appeal even within her own party. Unfortunately for the vice president, those facts do not bode well for her political future.
