WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris may not have won over America in her first two years in office, but she is staying put at President Joe Biden’s side.
The first woman vice president is gearing up for another national campaign despite low poll ratings, a failure to win over the Washington establishment and concern among fellow Democrats about an underwhelming start in the job.
Harris heads into a high pressure situation as Biden, now 80, moves toward an unprecedented run for a second term as the first octogenarian in the Oval Office.
If he wins and becomes ill or cannot fulfill his duties, Harris, 58, would succeed him. That reality will hang over their 2024 re-election bid.
While the pair have a good working relationship, Democratic sources say Biden has frustrations about some of her work. He is also convinced that neither Harris nor any other Democratic hopefuls would be able to beat former President Donald Trump if he is the Republican nominee, a factor that has influenced Biden’s inclination to run again, one former White House official said.
“If he did not think she was capable, he would not have picked her. But it is a question of consistently rising to the occasion,” said the former official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “I think his running for re-election is less about her and more about him, but I do think that she and the Democratic bench (are) a factor.”
Harris leaves on a trip to Africa later this week, a visit that may underscore her foreign policy credentials and generate the kind of positive headlines back home that have often eluded her.
When Biden picked Harris, only the second Black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate, she was more popular than he was with women, young voters and even some Republicans, an August 2020 Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
As vice president, though, she has a 39% favorability rating, according to an average by polling aggregator RealClearPolitics, below Biden’s 42.3%.
Some Democrats,…
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