The Democrats’ slightly expanded Senate majority could allow Vice President Kamala Harris, previously tethered to the upper chamber by the need to break ties, to pursue additional projects in the run-up to the 2024 elections.
Next year, the Senate will go from 50-50 Democratic to 51-49 in favor of President Joe Biden’s party. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) de-registered from the Democrats but will still caucus with them and count toward their majority as much as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Angus King (I-ME). Republicans suffered the net loss of one seat during the hard-fought midterm elections.
KAMALA HARRIS COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR SET TO DEPART AFTER NEARLY A YEAR
Democratic control of the Senate has hinged on Harris’s tiebreaking vote. She has cast 26 of them since taking office as vice president, including a record 15 in her first year. Democrats couldn’t even organize the Senate without her, much less pass legislation unanimously opposed by Republican senators. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) gave them a little more breathing room by winning his runoff election earlier this month.
The question is whether Harris will get more breathing room. Democratic strategist Brad Bannon told the Washington Examiner it will give her “a new lease on life. She will have more time in more ways than one.”
“She’ll be breaking fewer ties, which means more time to travel outside the Beltway to pick up political IOUs by raising money and campaigning for 2024 Democratic candidates,” he said. “The unexpected Democratic performance in the midterms also means President Biden will probably run for reelection, which gives the vice president an extra four years to prepare for a brutal campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.”
Harris has come under fire for her handling of her existing policy portfolio. She has been labeled the border czar, though her staff always emphasizes that her assignment was actually addressing the root causes of migration, and immigration has persistently been one of the areas where the public gives the Biden administration its lowest marks. Her attention to voting rights has produced no meaningful legislative accomplishments. Her speeches about the space program have been panned, and a promotional video she recorded is best known for its use of child actors.
Consequently, only 36.1% have a favorable view of Harris, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average. Her job approval rating is 40.7% in the FiveThirtyEight average. Both numbers are slightly worse than Biden’s. She has also experienced worse staff turnover than the president, signaling ambitious people do not see being employed by her as a way to get in at the ground floor of the next administration. Democrats have openly speculated about a challenge to her in the primaries if Biden decided against seeking reelection.
But Harris’s defenders say she has been misused or even set up to fail. The political commentator Bakari Sellers has called her West Wing assignments “trash.” There were reports that civil rights activist and MSNBC host Al Sharpton was going to speak to Biden about her role in the administration. “I want to see her be used more effectively, and I think her being in charge of voting was important, but I question her other assignments,” he told the Root last year.
As the first female vice president and the highest-ranking woman in the Biden administration, Harris played a big public role in the White House’s reaction to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. She gave speeches and interviews on the subject, huddled with abortion rights activists, and tried to reassure Democrats who thought Biden and the party’s razor-thin congressional majorities weren’t doing enough.
The Democratic outcry against the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion decision helped limit Republican gains in the midterm elections. Exit polls showed it was a major motivator for liberal voters, somewhat counteracting inflation. Democrats believe Harris should therefore receive some praise.
“Harris 100% deserves credit for her role in amplifying the meaning of the Dobbs decision for women all across the country,” Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov said. “She gave several high-profile interviews on the subject, offering her most cogent and important remarks on the subject.”
Yet Harris doesn’t figure prominently in most postmortems about the midterm elections.
“There is an obsession with belittling her, and this is certainly a case where criticism is unfounded,” Tarlov said. “Contextualizing Dobbs and having her face as the front for the administration’s position and approach made a world of difference.”
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Biden could ask her to reprise this role in another area.
“Hate crimes are the new pandemic which is sweeping the nation,” Bannon said. “Her background makes the vice president the perfect candidate to helm an initiative to study the problem and to lead an effort to eradicate the plague of racism that is on the rise in America. The president recently appointed her husband, Doug Emhoff, to head the fight against antisemitism.”
