We wrote back in September about the seeming disappearance of Vice President Kamala Harris from her role in the Biden-Harris administration. Nothing seems to have changed since then except Harris has slinked further and further from the limelight, almost entirely invisible now as the failed Biden presidency lurches from one crisis to another. Her approval numbers are worse than Biden’s, her connection with voters is non-existent. At this point, she’s become entirely irrelevant after Democrats foolishly believed she was the next in line using Biden as a stepping stone to install Harris as a more progressive voice in the White House.
The plan all along, running below the surface, has been for Biden to bow out and Harris to pick up the mantle in 2024. However, running so far below Biden in terms of approval, and below the lowest point of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Harris has become an invisible figure in the national conversation:
She was supposed to be the one-term president’s successor. The vice president who would take the torch from a by-then-80-something Joe Biden and carry on the administration’s agenda while becoming the first woman and the first woman of color to capture the White House as the nation’s 47th president.
But as things stand now, one has to wonder how Kamala Harris even remains on the ticket in 2024, regardless of who the nominee might be. A USA Today-Suffolk University poll finds that just 28 percent of voters — less than 3 in 10 — approve of the job Harris is doing. For context, that’s 10 points below her boss (38 percent approve, 59 percent disapprove). For more context, Harris was at 46 percent approval and 40 percent disapproval upon entering office, per USA Today-Suffolk.
Harris has contributed absolutely zero to the Biden-Harris administration. Her specific tasks, like dealing with the out-of-control southern border, have been a disaster beyond description. The issue continues to fester, and Harris has no interest in even visiting the border let alone fixing the problem. There almost seems to be a whiff of complete disconnect from Biden’s agenda or even the Biden presidency and the Vice President’s office.
How bad is it right now for the Biden-Harris administration with the missing Harris? So bad that the number one thing voters would like from the White House right now is a resignation or retirement from Joe Biden:
Overall, the USA Today-Suffolk poll has some disturbing numbers for Biden-Harris. Consider the answers to the question, “What is the one thing Americans want President Biden to do in the next year?”
— Resign/retire/quit: 20 percent
— Economy/jobs: 11 percent
— Unite/help the country: 8 percent
— Immigration/border control: 8 percent
— COVID/mandates: 6 percent
— Infrastructure bills: 5 percent
— Inflation: 4 percent
— Health care: 3 percent
— Climate change/environment: 3 percent
— Bipartisanship: 3 percent
Truly an embarrassing top-line number, and one which leaves Harris as a politician with absolutely no voter base. She performed well in California, where a rock could win an election as long as it ran as a Democrat. Nationally, however, Harris has been an abject failure from her presidential run, which ended with 2% support, to her supporting role in Biden’s White House, she’s been an empty figure with no ideas and nothing to add on any agenda item.
If we back up a little bit to the border crisis, the only thing Harris was tasked with addressing, the results haven’t been kind, not even from voters within her own party:
The vice president has yet to do a solo press conference. Out of sight, out of mind. And when judging Harris solely on the primary task she was given by the president, 23 percent approve of the administration’s handling of the U.S. border, or less than one-quarter.
Let that fully sink in. Twenty-three percent approve of the way the Biden-Harris administration has handled the U.S. southern border. That’s less than a quarter of the country that thinks Kamala Harris has done a good job with the only thing she was put in charge of.
At this point, it’s impossible to see Harris’ career moving any further than her current position. Other Democrats will look at these numbers and see there’s no way she can possibly hope to succeed running as Biden’s successor. Her favorability is terrible, her record is empty, and her likability in terms of personally connecting with voters is as inviting as a root canal.
She did recently come out hiding to campaign for Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, where Democrats went on to lose statewide. Former President Obama was there too, so maybe it wasn’t entirely Harris’ fault, but she currently has a losing record everywhere she goes.
