This week, Vice President Kamala Harris’ role in the 2024 election came into sharp focus as she took a direct stance against former President Donald Trump on the issue of reproductive rights. This move sets the stage for a central Democratic message in the upcoming election and signals a more prominent role for Harris.
The Biden campaign is leveraging Harris to mobilize voters on the potentially pivotal issue of reproductive rights in 2024. The aim is to capitalize on her appeal to younger, more diverse voters. The 2024 campaign is shaping up to be a significant political test for the vice president, who has faced intense criticism over her perceived low profile during Biden’s administration.
“Former President Trump hand-picked – hand-picked – three Supreme Court justices because he intended for them to overturn Roe. He intended for them to take your freedoms. He is the architect of this health care crisis. And he is not done,” a passionate Harris said Tuesday, speaking in front of a massive “Restore Roe” backdrop in Manassas, Virginia.
The first years of her vice presidency were marked by challenging assignments that often went unappreciated, along with some high-profile missteps. However, Harris is now embracing her role as a key voice on reproductive rights, a central issue for the Biden campaign as it refines its message ahead of November.
As part of the Biden campaign’s strategy, Harris has been positioned to deliver the administration’s message across the country in a weeks-long tour, drawing on testimonials to underscore the impacts of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Her tour is an extension of the dozens of meetings she held following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
“The previous president expressed his intentions quite clearly. And fast forward to just recently, says he’s proud of what he did,” Harris told CNN’s Laura Coates during an exclusive interview in Wisconsin, placing blame squarely on Trump for the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
“Vice President Harris has a proven record of mobilizing our coalition to help secure wins up and down ballot for Democrats. Early in 2024, she is already traveling the country and meeting with voters about the issues they care most about,” Harris’ campaign chief of staff Sheila Nix said.
Trump’s role in undermining abortion rights is emerging as a core theme for Harris and Biden as they seek reelection. Reproductive rights have galvanized Democrats and proven a winner at the ballot box in the 19 months since the high court overturned the ruling.
As the nation enters an election year, it remains to be seen whether Harris can motivate key constituencies to back Biden in 2024. Polling nationally and in battleground states suggest Biden is weak with young voters, as well as with Black and other voters of color.
Harris has spent much of January on the road, hitting crucial states that Biden needs to clinch a second term in office and where Democrats need to mobilize voters of color, including Nevada, South Carolina, and Georgia.
“You can’t do a college tour and not be authentic because it will – you know, they’ll sniff it out,” Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright told CNN. “I think the more that she can tap into that, the better.”
Over the course of multiple stops this month, Harris touched on preventing gun violence, the economy, and protecting freedoms – all key issues for the Biden campaign.
“I think it’s going to be an exciting time for her to be reintroducing herself in a new and different way in the campaign space,” said Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler of California.
In early January, Harris visited one of the most influential unions in Nevada – Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which is a majority Hispanic women union. It’s the type of audience that the vice president is uniquely suited to reach, allies say.
“When somebody like Kamala Harris, a strong woman, gets in front of our members, it matters,” Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the union told CNN.
Joel Goldstein, a vice presidential scholar, noted that vice presidential candidates don’t often carry a lot of weight in a presidential campaign, particularly in a reelection bid. But they can speak to key parts of the base.
“I think that a vice president who has particular appeal to part of the party base can credentialize the president in speaking to that part of the base or can talk about the importance of the administration’s efforts or accomplishments that are of particular interest to parts of the base,” Goldstein said.
In some respects, it may be reminiscent of the Jimmy Carter-Walter Mondale ticket in 1980, when Carter – tied up with the Iran hostage crisis – relied on Mondale to frequently hit the campaign trail.
“Sometimes they bear a disproportionate load of the campaigning because the president adopts a Rose Garden strategy or because the president has a day job that people expect him or her to be doing,” Goldstein added, referring to the vice president.
Harris allies point to the vice president’s travel and events ahead of the midterm elections and the college campus tour last year as examples of the sway she can carry – hoping to recreate that again ahead of the 2024 presidential election.