Vice President Kamala Harris has been watching her approval ratings decline to embarrassing levels amid a chaotic turnover in her office.
Some political consultants spoke to Politico about possible routes upward for Harris. These experts want her to be likable… but they disagreed over whether Harris’s office needs one big overhaul or a permanent series of small tweaks, and they showed no signs of resolving this dispute.
Like Harris’ office, no one seems to have any answers.
Douglas Schoen, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, ruled in favor of an image overhaul.
“Kamala Harris needs one transformational project,” Schoen said. “It is very unlikely to virtually impossible that she will have any appreciable success with voting rights or immigration.”
Schoen suggested any project with a possibility of “clear, demonstrable results.” For example, he encouraged Harris to focus on coronavirus prevention.
He concluded, “Her staff departures only confirm that absent a reboot, she is likely to be as relevant as Dan Quayle was in 1992 and thereafter.”
Republican strategist Liz Mair recommended some minor tweaks, like appearing on cooking shows, but Mair still agreed on the need for a “transformational project.”
“One other concern I hear a lot about Harris is that she’s just not ready to take over as president. So, use this time to get deeper into foreign policy and defense, two areas that are really core to the job of being president,” Mair said.
“Immigration policy and practice is important. So are voting rights. But neither speaks to the job of being president the way that deeply immersing herself in China issues and policy would.”
Harris has faced criticism for her lack of foreign policy experience. She was called “not qualified” in 2019 by a high-profile combat veteran, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii. Harris joined the Intelligence Committee during her stint in the Senate, but she spent most of her career in state and local politics, as California’s attorney general and San Francisco’s prosecutor.
In August, she tried to take on China — as per Mair’s advice — by meeting with American allies in Southeast Asia. Her trip devolved into a scandal over “Havana syndrome.”
Larry J. Sabato, an academic, advised Harris to rehabilitate her image gradually through public appearances.
“The repairs must be done a bit at a time, day after day, not by some dramatic “reset” that would be instantly recognized as artifice,” Sabato said.
“She has more opportunities than anyone but the president to let voters get to know her — Harris the person as well as the politician. It’s the one thing she can control. Any TV show, newsy or otherwise, would welcome her at almost any time.”
Another political adviser, Beth Hansen, encouraged Harris to build her reputation not by taking on her own projects, but by assisting President Joe Biden.
“In the long run, her fate is intertwined with that of the administration she serves, and being a confident, capable ally of the president is the best way to ‘get her star back’ over time,” Hansen said. “Her favorability largely tracks that of President Biden.”
Harris has, indeed, lost popularity in tandem with the president. However, Biden has rebounded modestly in the polls recently, according to new Associated Press data. Harris hasn’t had the same luck.
To conclude, Hansen quoted the former Senator and Ohio Gov. George Voinovich, “Do a good job with the job you have, and the future will take care of itself.”
However, as a piece of advice, telling Harris to “do a good job” as vice president is vague and obvious.
Other Democratic strategists encouraged Harris to bring back her old, Californian habits.
Michael Starr Hopkins, a political strategist for former President Barack Obama, encouraged Harris to embrace her long career in state-level politics and stump for downballot candidates. “Get her out of the stagnation associated with Washington,” he said.
Michelle D. Bernard, a lawyer and CEO, wants Harris to return to these old instincts.
“The Kamala Harris who danced with a marching band and in the rain is the Kamala Harris the public misses,” she said. “Unleash the Kamala Harris who left former Attorney General William Barr stuttering during a hearing.”
She continued, “Harris is warm, charismatic and bright. Her laugh is infectious and her rapport with children heartwarming.”
In the past, some blue-state Democrats have won popularity in their own heavily Democratic districts, only to face electability problems nationally. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., serves as one recent, glaring example.
Harris has been presented with a ride range of advice.
She’s in a hole, and no one can agree on how to dig her out.
The Horn editorial team