Like most vice presidents, Kamala Harris has dreamy dreams of filling the top spot in the White House herself. But if she is living under that illusion, her horrible poll numbers should tend to send her crashing back to Earth.
Of course, we don’t have to guess if Harris thinks she could be president. After all, she ran for the spot against Joe Biden during the 2020 Democratic primary cycle.
Harris, then a senator from California, got nowhere with her effort. She bowed out of the race in December 2019 without winning any primary contests and never earning more than 3.4 percent support nationwide.
So we already know she has dreamed about a triumphant campaign for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. But while she thinks she has the right stuff, the voters are far less sure.
With speculation rampant that President Joe Biden could announce any day now that he is ending his re-election campaign — as unlikely as that is — some have wondered if Harris could serve as a suitable fill-in.
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Voters are very leery of Biden over his age — he would be 82 at the start of his second term — and the constant stream of photos and videos that seem to show his advancing age-related disabilities. That leaves Democrats speculating about a replacement.
Could it be the vice president? Politico asked that very question in a tracking poll released Wednesday.
The Politico/Morning Consult poll found, however, that few think the Democrats should turn to Harris as their candidate.
Only a third of voters overall think she could win an election if she were her party’s nominee, with only three in five registered Democrats saying she could win. Worse, only a quarter of independents responded that Harris could win an election for president.
Would Kamala Harris be a good president?
Harris fared a bit better on the question of “leadership,” with 42 percent saying she is a strong leader. That included three-quarters of the Democratic respondents but only a third of independents.
But, in general, the vice president suffers from very low approval ratings. The Politico poll found that only 42 percent view her favorably compared with 52 percent unfavorably.
Dismal results like this have been true of nearly every poll focusing on the vice president since Biden won the 2020 election. A year ago, Harris was down at 32 percent approval in one poll. In 2021, another found she had plummeted to 28 percent approval.
The Politico poll surveyed 3,996 registered voters from May 28-29, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Politico did its best to pump Harris up in its long report, filling the article with the voices of supporters and suggesting her recent efforts to improve her standing have helped.
“She’s done an admirable job on reproductive health and issues important to the black community and related to youth,” R.L. Miller, a climate activist and Democratic National Committee member from California, told Politico.
Still, Miller said, “she’s falling into the same spot that many vice presidents fall into, which is that she doesn’t have a very public role outside of her lane.”
“People don’t associate her with issues like foreign policy, which is so important these days. She isn’t being credited with the larger international and domestic work,” she continued.
Miller, who said she is a fan of the vice president, lamented that Harris probably could not win an election for the top seat.
“Democrats have internalized the Hillary Clinton lesson: That a woman can’t win. And I think it’s sad,” she said.
But all the happy talk from her supporters did not paper over the numbers. While it is highly unlikely to happen, there is a large contingent of voters who want Harris dumped as vice president before the November election.
“Thirty-six percent of voters think Biden should replace Harris with another Democrat, while 39 percent want him to stick with Harris,” Politico said.
But the party may be stuck with her.
The Politico poll asked which Democrat respondents would want to see run in 2028, assuming Biden isn’t the candidate. No one even approached Harris’ dismal 21 percent.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and California Gov. Gavin Newsom were tied in second place with just 10 percent apiece, followed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly at 4 percent.
But as to stepping up to the No. 1 seat, chances are not good for Harris. In the end, the poll found that only 34 percent overall think she could be elected to the White House and 57 percent doubt her chances.
Despite Politico’s attempt to soften the blow, these poll numbers suggest the Democratic Party would be insane to offer Harris as their nominee, either this fall or in 2028.
