Why Kamala Harris Won’t be able to Change the Narrative for the Democrats

There is an old saying that the backup quarterback is usually the most popular player on the team. When the starter is struggling, the fans like to think about the possibility of having a different leader behind center. Still, while sometimes the backup is able to play well for a couple of games, usually over the long run people see why the backup is not the starter.

Kamala Harris has been a completely incompetent Vice President, and her polls numbers reflect her abysmal performance. More Americans disapprove then approve of Harris in every single poll that has been taken since she came into power in January of 2021. The average poll shows that 50.4% of Americans disapprove of the former California Senator, and only 38.6% of people approve of her. Part of Harris’s low approval rating is obviously that the Biden administration has been a complete failure, but there are also other polls showing the country lacks confidence in her as an individual as well.

A Politico poll shows that only 34 percent of independents think Harris would be a good President.

Harris has two distinct problems. First, she cannot divorce herself from the failed administration she is a part of and 67 percent of Americans also think the country is headed in the wrong direction. Second, Harris has been incompetent both as a politician and as a leader. She has repeatedly struggled in basic interviews even with left-wing media, and her first task in the administration, being put in charge of the border, was an unmitigated disaster.

Harris will likely give down-ticket Democrats, particularly in the House, some slight hope, since she has stronger appeal to younger progressives and some in the black community, but national polls have still repeatedly shown that she trails Trump. The former President’s strongest support in the black community is also with men under the age of 50, and Harris also did not have a progressive record when she was the Attorney General in California. The Vice President will not be able to make any credible arguments about policy differences between her and the Administration, and she can’t run away from Biden’s failed record either; the President likes to say that she was the last person in the room he talked to be before key decisions such as the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Democratic National Convention will likely give Harris and the Democrats some slight hope, and popular individuals such as Michelle Obama campaigning with the Vice President may help her in the short term. Still, Harris failed in the 2020 Democratic primary because she could not debate or campaign, and even the left found her to be incompetent. She has also proven to be incapable as the Vice President. The former Senator from California is likely a better option than the current senile President, but Trump should still be able to prevail easily in a country where nearly two-thirds of the citizens think the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction.