Kamala Harris: Why the US Vice President only plays the supporting role

analysis

US Vice President
High expectations, little achieved: why Kamala Harris has only played the supporting role for a year

It was a sight that would go down in history: When Kamala Harris took the oath of office in front of the Capitol on January 20 last year and vowed to defend the United States Constitution, her drive and desire for change was palpable. The first woman, the first black and the first Asian American to serve as a US vice president—the expectations couldn’t have been higher.

Quite a few had hoping that Joe Biden would only be an interim president and that Harris would follow in his footsteps in 2024.

But twelve months later, disillusionment has spread. In national polls by Gallup and Real Clear Politics, just 40 percent of Americans are happy with Harris. After just a year, she is worse off than Biden himself and her Republican predecessors Mike Pence and Dick Cheney.

How could this happen?

Kamala Harris and the thankless “number two” office

Just last week, US President Joe Biden made his way to the Capitol to convince the Democrats to change the voting rules in the Senate. Harris, who put Biden in charge of the proposed law change in June, was not present. Neither the White House press secretary nor Harris’s staff came up with a clear answer as to why the vice president wasn’t at Biden’s side.

It’s just one of many examples where Harris remains politically in the shadows.

The fact is, the number two job has always been difficult in the United States. The vice president sits in the center of power, but the president himself has the last word on all important decisions. So Harris, like all her predecessors, depends entirely on the favor of the boss. Even in the best of times, it’s hard for any vice president to shine, as Roy Neel, who served as chief of staff to former US Vice President Al Gore, once said. And these are certainly not the best of times.

Due to the corona pandemic, Harris has not been able to appear in public as often as she and her team would have liked. In addition, the trips abroad that are typical for vice presidents can be counted on one hand, which has largely reduced her diplomatic engagement to virtual meetings due to the virus.

But many Americans had hoped for more from Harris. She, who proudly announced after her election victory in November 2020: “Any little girl watching tonight will realize this is a land of opportunity.” She, who so often in her life has been the first to seize opportunities: as California’s first attorney general, where she vocally advocated tougher gun laws, as the first black West Coast senator, where she made a name for herself as a tough critic of Trump’s immigration policies — and now as the first vice president in the White House.

Remained pale when it came to core political issues

One thing is certain, the tasks in Harris’ first year in office could hardly have been more complex. Migration and the crisis at the southern border of the United States were at the top of her agenda. Every month, thousands of people from Latin America try to enter the United States illegally. The situation escalated particularly dramatically in September in the border town of Del Rio, where more than ten thousand migrants were now holding out under a bridge. The vice president then traveled to Mexico and Guatemala and worked to increase the number of certain work visas. She was then accused by Republicans of not having the border crisis under control and of abandoning administrative agencies that were struggling to cope with the significant increase in migrants.

But after Harris a clear “Don’t come!” addressed to the people of Latin America, there was also criticism from within their own ranks. She was disappointed by the US Vice President’s comment tweeted then her party colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The president of the “League of United Latin American Citizens”, Domingo Garcia, also criticized Harris’ efforts as “too little, too late”. It’s as if the vice president, who has never met NGOs or civil rights activists on her travels, is groping in the dark for a solution.

Harris is also groping in the dark in Congress, where she had pushed legislative changes on behalf of Biden that were intended to pave the way for the US government’s planned electoral reform. This project has been officially considered a failure since Wednesday evening. Neither Harris nor Biden managed to get all the Democratic senators on board to get rid of the so-called “filibuster rule,” which allowed Republicans to continue to get in the way of electoral reform. The Vice President was then visibly disappointed: “The American people will not forget this moment. Neither will history,” she wrote in an explanation.

Political scientist: “Don’t write off Harris yet”

What light the story will shed on Kamala Harris herself remains to be seen. But it is already becoming apparent that the high political pressure and the lack of success are not leaving their closest circle untouched. In the last few weeks, Harris has come back negative several times in the headlines – including because of confused interview statements and the termination of some of their top employees. Several employees had previously complained anonymously about the difficult working environment and an overly harsh boss.

Martin Thunert, political scientist at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies at Heidelberg University, also speaks of an “inconsistent balance sheet”. Like Biden himself, Harris got off to a brilliant start, but things have been going down since the summer, Thunert said star with a view to the poor approval ratings. While expectations and hopes that were far too high were projected into her vice presidency from the start, she was at the same time entrusted with demanding tasks – in which it was easy to fail.

Has Kamala Harris already dropped out of the race for 2024?

“No,” says the political scientist. “Harris is politically stricken, but I wouldn’t write her off just yet.” Her task now is to get her administration under control and to help ensure that her party does not suffer too bad a defeat in the congressional elections in early November. You shouldn’t expect more at the moment.

Sources: “New York Times“, “LA Times“, “political“, “business standard“