She swaggered, she jabbed, she inspired. She even joked. Anyone looking for a glimpse of what Vice President Kamala Harris could bring to the campaign trail would have found it this week at Howard University, where she headlined a rally for reproductive rights.
After two years of tightly scripted, uneven performances that often dismayed Democrats and cheered Republicans, Harris is looser, more forceful and more willing to speak off the cuff following her trip to Africa a month ago.
“That is the vice president that America is going to get a chance to get to know for the first time,” said Laphonza Butler, a former adviser to Harris who leads EMILY’s List.
Now Harris, the first woman and person of color in her position, will be put to the test as President Joe Biden seeks a second term.Although vice presidents are rarely decisive in reelection efforts, Harris is poised to be an exception. Not only is she leading the charge on Democrats’ most potent issue, the battle over abortion rights, she’s the running mate for the oldest president in history, increasing scrutiny over whether she’s ready to step into the top job if necessary.
It’s an issue that Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, raised on Wednesday in an interview with Fox News.
“If you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris,” Haley said. “Because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old” — the age Biden would be at the end of a second term — “is not something that I think is likely.”
Harris’ mission until Election Day will be energizing the voters that Democrats most need — specifically women, people of color and young people — while sustaining what will likely be an unrelenting barrage of Republican attacks.