Kamala Harris is Biden’s Running Mate. Here’s What it Means for 2020 and Beyond.
Photo Credit: The United States Senate - Office of Senator Kamala Harris
By: Logan Phillips
Date: August 12th
Yesterday, Joe Biden announced that Kamala Harris would be joining him on the Democratic Presidential ticket. These are some of the biggest positive and negative implications of this historic decision.
Pros:
1. Harris’s A-Game is Top Notch: At her best, Kamala Harris’s political skills are hard to match. The first week of her campaign was enthralling. She gave an electrifying speech that spoke to America's better angels in front of 20,000 Oaklanders. She delivered the single best performance of the cycle in the first Presidential debate, famously to Joe Biden’s detriment. When Kamala is on, she is a force to be reckoned with.
2. Risk Mitigation: It’s surprising that one of the most historic vice-presidential picks in American history also happens to be one of the least risky choices available, nonetheless Harris fits both descriptions perfectly. Biden has a considerable lead in the polls against President Trump, so it was politically prudent to select a candidate that was unlikely change the entire contours of the election and risk undermining his current position. Harris keeps Biden’s coalition intact and isn’t so progressive or conservative that she risks alienating the broad coalition of voters currently supporting Biden.
Presidential politics is distinctly different from anything else in American politics. Candidates face intense scrutiny, extreme pressure, and unfair standards, and that goes double for women. As a former high-profile candidate herself, Harris knows firsthand what it’s like to go through the wringer of a presidential campaign, and she made it out of the Democratic primary with her image in tack. She is not going to be overwhelmed by the process, and she’s less likely to make costly unforced errors.
3. History Making: Harris is the first Black Women, first Indiana American, and first Jamaican ever on a major presidential ticket. It’s easy to overlook the historic nature of this selection because Kamala has long been the favorite in the V.P. stakes. Don’t lose sight of the significance of this moment for a country that has yet to elect a black female governor, even 155 years after the end of slavery, and 55 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Shirley Chisholm ran for president in 1972 in part to change expectations of what a presidential candidate could look like. Undoubtedly, there will be black girls growing up in the United States today that will one day run for office in part because Harris forever changed their image of what a politician can look like.
4. Doubles Down on Biden’s Strength in the Suburbs: During the Democratic Primary, Harris did best with suburban voters, particularly college educated suburban women. For decades, this has been one of the most critically important swing voter groups in American politics and has been fiercely contested by both parties. Polls indicate that Joe Biden is thriving in the suburbs, and could feasibly win them by double digits. This type of edge is historically unusual; Harris strengthens Biden’s chance of excelling here. If this advantage stays as strong as it is today, it’s hard to imagine the Biden-Harris ticket losing the election.
Cons:
1. Inconsistency: Next to all but Joe Biden, Kamala Harris probably started off with the best hand in the Democratic primary, but she was out of the race before voting started in Iowa. As good as Harris can be when she is in her prime, she suffered from long streaks of inconsistency. Biden is going to need her to avoid that type of sustained rut over the next 83 days until election day.
2. Criminal Justice Record: Kamala Harris’s tenure as Attorney General was marred by her reluctance to firmly push back on the war on crime. Harris opposed a bill that would have required the California Justice Department to investigate every officer involved shooting. On multiple occasions, prior convictions were challenged or thrown out due to misconduct on the part of prosecutors or police, but Harris often fought hard to ensure those individuals remained in prison.
To be fair, Harris had some real game-changing accomplishments too, including overseeing the statewide implementation of police body cameras, the first agency-run program of its kind in the nation. She waged battle against the menace of human trafficking, an often unseen but nonetheless devastating horror that has trapped hundreds of thousands of victims in the United States. Finally, as a San Francisco District Attorney, Harris declined to ever pursue the death penalty, even in one case where she faced intense pressure from the police union to use it against a cop killer. Harris never charged individuals for marijuana possession, and sought much smaller penalties against marijuana dealers than her predecessors.
3. Harris will Probably be Running for President: The vast majority of Vice Presidents end up on the outside looking in on most major decisions made by their President, in part because they rarely secured the President’s trust. Presidents and their staff often believe that the VP was putting their only political considerations ahead of the administration in preparation for a future Presidential bid.
If Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want to avoid this trap, Biden has to believe that Kamala will keep disagreement internal even when airing them would help her politically, and that her advice is always given in good faith. The good news is that they have a pretty good blueprint to follow. The Biden-Obama partnership was one of the most successful in history, and Biden never lost Obama’s trust. It also did not stop him from running four years later.
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