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Kamala Harris Is Trouble for Joe Biden

A new NBC News survey shows that nearly half of respondents have a negative view of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks to the National League of Cities via video conference Monday, March 8, 2021, from the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. (Official White House by Lawrence Jackson)
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks to the National League of Cities via video conference Monday, March 8, 2021, from the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. (Official White House t by Lawrence Jackson)

A new NBC News survey shows that nearly half of respondents have a negative view of Vice President Kamala Harris. Precisely, 49 percent of respondents have a negative opinion of Harris. Only 32 percent hold a positive opinion of Harris, meaning Harris had a net negative rating of -17 – the lowest net negative rating for any vice president in the poll’s history.

“For example, in October 2019, 38 percent of respondents had a negative view of Harris’ predecessor, former Vice President Pence, while 34 percent of those surveyed had a positive view of the now Republican Presidential candidate, according to the poll,” The Hill reported. That’s a net negative rating of -4 – less than one-fourth of Harris’s current net negative rating.

Kamala Harris has an image problem

Democrats are fully aware of the problems implicit within the new NBC poll.

Harris has a major popularity problem and a major image problem – problems that the party is working to correct.

White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, for example, is meeting with Harris every week to “discuss ways to tout her policy ideas and leadership” (aka make her electable).

Democratic strategists are also putting their heads together, trying to solve the Harris problem. Part of the problem, in the view of the party, is that Republicans have been “trying to paint Harris as incompetent. And yet, the strategist found, the White House was still developing its strategy for how to combat the ruthless assault against the first Black and Asian American woman to hold the vice presidency,” as USA Today reported.

The solution? The strategists have proposed that “Harris would benefit from more public appearances in environments where she can be herself and in front of voting groups with whom she is already popular.” Personally, I’m skeptical that Harris can “be herself” away a -17 net negativity rating.

Extra scrutiny for Harris?

Harris-backers argue that Harris is receiving an unusually high amount of scrutiny on account of being the first Black and first Asian American and first woman vice president. If Harris is receiving more scrutiny than other vice presidents I doubt it has much to do with her identity markers. Rather, I suspect the age of the president under which Harris serves is driving much of the scrutiny. Harris has the unique distinction of serving under the oldest president ever.

And as vice president, if there’s a problem with the president, Harris gets the call up. So given how old Biden is, given the commonly held perception that Biden is not mentally or physically fit enough to serve another term, Harris is almost expected to have to slide in to relieve Biden. Accordingly, Harris is receiving scrutiny commensurate to a inevitable president, rather than just another vice president.

Rehabilitating Harris’s image a tall order

Rehabilitating Harris’s image will be difficult.

She’s not popular because she’s not especially likeable. She’s not especially authentic, nor is she especially smooth.

Harris’s 2020 campaign fizzled out early. She was dead in the water before a Biden decree that he was naming a Black woman as vice president catapulted Harris back into the national conversation.

As VP, Harris has been successfully tagged with an “incompetent” label – a label she has in part facilitated with a slew of inarticulate speeches.

Now the question is whether Harris will drag down Biden’s 2024 ticket. The -17 net negativity rating suggests that she will.

Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken. 

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Written By

Harrison Kass is a Senior Defense Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, he joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison has degrees from Lake Forest College, the University of Oregon School of Law, and New York University’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. He lives in Oregon and regularly listens to Dokken.