CNN
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As President Joe Biden faces off against critics in Washington, Vice President Kamala Harris made her case to allies across the country this week.
In Nevada, a battleground state crucial to her reelection, she on Tuesday blasted “Project 2025,” a 900-page policy agenda drafted by conservatives with ties to former President Donald Trump.
In Dallas on Wednesday, she reminded her Alpha Kappa Alpha sisters that for more than a century they have “been on the front lines of the fight to realize the promise of America.”
And in Greensboro on Thursday, Harris told the crowd that 2024 will be the most “meaningful, crucial and important election” of their lifetimes.
“We will keep fighting. We will keep organizing. And we will win in November,” Harris said. “We will win, because we know what’s at stake.”
Whether Biden drops out or remains the Democratic nominee, as he has maintained for nearly two weeks, Harris is under increasing pressure to clearly articulate the importance of this year’s election, draw differences between a Biden administration and a Trump administration and protect the candidate from Republican attacks. Her efforts to reach out to minority voters and other key constituencies have become crucial.
Supporters say that’s the job she’s done: She uses her lived experiences as a Black and South Asian woman, and her work as a former district attorney, attorney general and California senator, to explain her campaign and administration policies on gun safety, small business and reproductive rights.
“I think it’s a strong team. You’ve got Biden, you’ve got a really strong vice president, and I’m glad that the world is now starting to notice her,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. “Black women often don’t get noticed until they need to be.”
If Biden remains the nominee, Harris’s base-building efforts could come in handy in battleground states like Pennsylvania, where she is scheduled to appear on Saturday for an Asian Pacific Islander American Voting Presidential Town Hall.
Denisa Thomas, a Kansas City, Missouri, resident who attended AKA’s 71st Boulevard in Dallas, said Harris’ support for the president is part of her own continued support for Biden.
“She supports him staying in the race and I trust her judgment,” the 31-year-old systems engineer told CNN. “So if he needs to stay, he needs to stay.”
Even if Biden does indeed step down, her presence on the campaign trail could ease concerns about whether he can fulfill the role without gaffes or missteps.
A new Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll found that only 30% of adults (42% of Democrats) want Biden to continue campaigning, while 67% think Biden should step aside and replace him with another candidate. Forty-four% of adults (37% of independents, 18% of Republicans and 77% of Democrats) would be satisfied if Biden were to forgo reelection and Harris became the nominee.
Biden and his campaign have maintained he is the favorite to beat Trump, despite a slight drop in his approval rating in post-debate polls. In a memo to Biden staff first reported by The Associated Press, senior aides wrote that “there is no indication that anyone else would outperform the President versus Trump,” arguing that the hypothetical matchup did not take into account the negative publicity the other candidates would face in the future.
One of the first criticisms Harris will face as a candidate will be for endorsing Biden.
“Kamala Harris is responsible for Joe Biden’s disastrous presidency because she’s covering it up,” Sen. J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican who is a possible running mate for Trump, told CNN this week.
This week, the Trump campaign released a digital ad accusing Harris of misleading the public about Biden’s health and featuring footage of Harris vouching for Biden’s health and mental competency.
Even before the president’s shaky performance in last month’s CNN debate, the Biden-Harris pair had been trailing Trump in opinion polls and showing signs of losing support among Black and Hispanic men and younger voters compared to 2020.
Biden now has a long, hard road to rebuilding faith in his nominee after weeks of Democrats publicly and privately doubting his ability to win. For now, his campaign has retained the trust of many Democratic voters, especially Black women, who balk at the idea of revamping the nominee, even if it means making Harris the nominee.
“We have a situation right now where there’s a disconnect between the Democratic electorate and the party elites,” said Adrienne Shropshire, executive director of the Black PAC, a black voter advocacy group, “and that disconnect needs to be bridged quickly, because time is running out and you don’t want to lose your vote.”
Those dynamics have created an opportunity for Ms. Harris to redirect attention to the presidential campaign and her role within it, as many of the president’s Democratic critics have suggested she could replace him as the campaign’s candidate.
“As President Biden has stated, he counts on Vice President Harris’ advice and counsel,” Harris press secretary Ernesto Apreza said in a statement. “Whether it’s fighting to protect fundamental freedoms, including women’s right to make decisions about their own bodies, lowering prescription drug costs for families, or advancing America’s national security interests on the world stage, VP Harris is proud to be President Biden’s governing partner, and together they will continue to move our country forward.”
The past two weeks have seen a shift in tone regarding Harris. At one point last year, the vice president was the subject of unease within the Democratic Party after a string of bad press during Biden’s first term in office, and concerns that she would be a drag on the Democratic nominee.
That included failing to respond to an interview question about whether he plans to visit the U.S.-Mexico border as part of his role in managing migrant flows from Central America.
In other instances, her supporters have argued that Ms. Harris faced backlash because the way she approached her job, including her emphasis on black maternal health and her focus on the historically black sorority, the Divine Nine, did not resemble how past vice presidential roles have been approached.
“I think people weren’t quite sure what to make of her because she was trying to do things differently,” said one Democratic official close to the vice president’s office. “She was trying to figure out how to fill the role in her own way, not the way that other people were doing it.”
The shift comes after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision overturning a federal right to abortion, a decision that helped turn the tide not only for Democrats but for Harris in particular, who in March became the first sitting vice president to visit an abortion clinic.
Mini Timmaraj, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly known as NARAL, said Biden is Democrats’ best bet to win the November election, but that Harris is the “best spokesperson” on the issue.
“Let me be very clear: Joe Biden is with us,” she said, “but she needs to be the cheerleader and the person who really elevates the accomplishments of all of our candidates.”
Ms. Harris was in North Carolina on Thursday for a campaign event at Dudley High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, the first black high school in Guilford County under the once-segregated school system. This was her sixth visit to the state this year.
In her speech, she outlined what her administration has done on health care, student loan debt, gun violence and efforts to strengthen NATO.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper pointed to Harris’ visit, which came just after Biden held a rally in Raleigh the day after the debate and first lady Jill Biden’s recent visit to Wilmington, as further evidence that the Biden-Harris campaign is “still alive and well in North Carolina.” Cooper dismissed speculation that he might be on the shortlist for a running mate if Biden drops out and Harris becomes the nominee.
“I don’t want to get into this new favorite political conversation because it’s so important for America to stop Donald Trump,” Cooper told CNN on Wednesday. “Joe Biden has said he’s going to run. I support him. The president and vice president are doing a good job and I don’t see the nominee changing.”
