President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 presidential race is placing a highlight on his probably successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the coverage accomplishments she will level to if she had been to run the ticket.
Biden endorsed Harris to take his place because the Democratic presidential nominee within the upcoming election on Sunday, writing that his resolution to decide on her as his working mate in 2020 was “the best decision I’ve made” in a put up shortly after saying he was leaving the race. The Biden marketing campaign has additionally quietly examined whether or not Harris could be a viable selection towards presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in a survey of voters, the New York Occasions reported final week.
Harris’ election as vp 4 years in the past marked a collection of historic firsts, making her the highest-ranking feminine elected official in U.S. historical past in addition to the very best elected Black and Asian official.
However Harris faces a problem widespread to many vice presidents—of forging her personal distinct id after taking part in the No. 2. In a assertion on Sunday, Harris mentioned she intends “to earn and win this nomination.”
Throughout Biden’s first time period, the 59-year-old has taken on a few of the Biden administration’s hardest assignments, from the U.S.-Mexico border, to abortion rights, to voting rights.
Harris has develop into the face of the Democratic Occasion’s push for abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. In January she kicked off a “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour this yr throughout which she turned the primary sitting VP to go to an abortion clinic. She has backed federal laws that may assure a nationwide proper to abortion.
Harris has additionally led the Biden administration’s efforts to increase voting rights, together with serving to craft laws that was in the end stymied within the Senate.
A professional-business ‘centrist’
Her file on financial points, nonetheless, is murkier—a possible legal responsibility at a time when People cite inflation and the financial system as prime points.
Because the VP, Harris can take credit score for casting a file variety of tie-breaking votes within the Senate to move the Biden Administration’s priorities, together with the Inflation Discount Act, which funneled billions into clean-energy initiatives and codified decrease costs for some prescribed drugs.
Her file as California’s lawyer normal may bolster her standing towards Trump and attraction to average voters.
“The business community, especially the tech/VC community are exhilarated over this choice,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior affiliate dean for management research on the Yale College of Administration, instructed Fortune by way of e-mail. “She is a confirmed centrist and strong prosecutor of the rule of law. Business leaders are especially worried about Trump’s violation of the rule of law in favor of the law of rulers.”
However Harris has additionally acquired criticism for her method to some hot-button points, significantly on immigration. It took her months to go to the US-Mexico border, even after being tapped by Biden to spearhead the administration’s response to the disaster. Her journey to Guatemala and Mexico in March was overshadowed within the press by an interview with Lester Holt of NBC Information the place she “awkwardly downplayed the urgency” of the go to, The Washington Publish mentioned. She hasn’t visited the border since.
A number of Republicans used her perceived failure on the border as ammunition on the 2024 Republican Nationwide Conference. In her speech, Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley warned of “four more years of Biden or a single day of Harris.” She forged Harris’ efficiency – in some eyes, unfairly – as failing to uphold one in every of her solely duties as vp.
“Kamala had one job — one job — and that was to fix the border,” Haley mentioned. “Now imagine her in charge of the entire country?”
Democrats have additionally expressed issues about her generally gregarious humorousness, which come at moments which are generally criticized as cringeworthy.
