American vice-presidents occupy what can be one of the most powerful positions in all of the federal US government and yet it can also be one of the least powerful. Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris is going to soon find out where her tenure will land.
Harris is in an unusual position among the near 50 vice-presidents in American history. She enters the office with the strong possibility that the incoming president, Joe Biden, won’t run for re-election, thus teeing her up as a future occupant of the Oval Office far more than normal.
That has triggered intense speculation on how Harris will approach her job over the next four years as she treads a fine line between being Biden’s loyal deputy but also his heir apparent.
Thus far the division of labor between Biden and Harris has only been described in broad terms. Incoming administration officials expect Harris not to have a separate policy portfolio and the issues Biden focuses on will be the ones she focuses on.
Biden and Harris have said the Biden administration will follow the example of the Obama administration when Biden was President Barack Obama’s go-to man for greasing the wheels of Congress. Even before he nominated Harris, Biden described his own vice-presidential relationship with Obama as a model for the way he would work with his own deputy.
Yet Biden and Harris bring remarkably different experiences and assets to the role. While Biden helped offset criticism that Obama was too young and inexperienced, Harris has helped ease concern about Biden’s age and excite legions of Democrats who were disappointed to see a white man lead the ticket.
Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, will be the first woman and first woman of color to serve as vice-president.
“She comes into office with real star quality and that goes a long way because she’s got sway with various constituencies,” said Roy Neel, who served as chief of staff to Vice-President Al Gore during Bill Clinton’s presidency. “She ran for president. She’s smart and able and she’s got relationships in the Senate – not as deep as Biden. They have an opportunity to be a helluva team.”
Harris has been active in the weeks since Biden won the election. She headlined a rally for the Democratic candidates in the upcoming Georgia runoff elections that will decide control of the US Senate. The vice-president-elect has had a major role in Biden’s cabinet selections as well.
That’s not by accident. Biden has promised that Harris will be the “last person in the room” when making important decisions, a request he made of Obama when agreeing to serve as his vice-president.
“There’s not a single decision I’ve made yet about personnel or about how to proceed that I haven’t discussed it with Kamala first,” Biden said in a joint interview with Harris on CNN.
Joel Goldstein, vice-presidential historian at St Louis University and author of The White House Vice Presidency: The Path to Significance, Mondale to Biden, said Harris was uniquely positioned to have a “consequential” vice-presidency, not only because of the historic nature of her ascension, but because the magnitude of crises facing the next administration cannot be handled by the president alone.
There is also another dimension that sets Harris apart: her boss knows perhaps better than anyone else the potential – and the pitfalls – of the job.
“She’s going to be vice-president to a vice-president,” Goldstein said. “She’s working for a president who has been in her job and has seen the world from her position. He understands the frustrations and the challenges and he also understands the possibilities. Most vice-presidents don’t have that advantage.”
President Jimmy Carter and his vice-president, Walter Mondale, helped set a precedent for the modern vice-presidency, envisioning the role as a chief adviser and top lieutenant who could take on assignments at the highest level of government, Goldstein said. Future administrations adopted that model, including Obama and Biden.
In interviews, Harris has said that she hopes to be Biden’s Biden, pushing and challenging him in private while remaining a loyal No 2 in public. Asked in a recent interview on ABC how she will define success in the role, Harris replied: “Joe Biden’s success.”
Harris has been given a “full voice” in shaping the next administration, interviewing candidates for cabinet positions and providing input at every step of the decision-making process, according to a transition official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In the past few weeks since the election, Harris has joined Biden at public events in Wilmington, and for private meetings with Democratic leaders and lawmakers. They speak by phone nearly every day, the official said.
Harris’s portfolio has yet to be defined, in part because the administration’s immediate focus will be to confront the public health and economic tolls of the coronavirus pandemic. Harris has said she wants to be a “full partner”, suggesting that she would prefer to be involved in all aspects of the governing process as opposed to championing a specific issue or initiative.
It’s unlikely that Harris will reprise Biden’s role of congressional whisperer during the Obama years. Harris spent only a few years in the Senate while Biden’s ties, including to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, go back decades.
However, if Democrats win both seats in Georgia, she may find herself summoned frequently to Capitol Hill where she would serve as the tie-breaking vote in an evenly divided Senate.
Looming over her vice-presidency is the possibility that Biden, currently 78, may not run for re-election in 2024. Biden’s candidacy has been partially predicated on the prospect of him being a transitional president, acting as a bridge to a new generation of Democratic leaders. Harris is one of at least two potential 2024 contenders in Biden’s cabinet, along with Pete Buttigieg, who Biden nominated to run the Department of Transportation. Both ran against Biden for president, eventually dropping out and throwing their support behind him.
It is far from unusual for a vice-president to harbor presidential ambitions. In fact, that’s part of the reason many accept a job that one former officeholder colorfully described as “not worth a bucket of warm piss”. Biden himself ran twice before Obama chose him as his vice-president and there was speculation in 2016 that he intended to run.
“For all vice-presidents, presidential ambitions and the perception that you’re presidentially ambitious becomes a source of tension with the president’s inner circle,” Goldstein said. Successfully navigating this reality, he added, requires an understanding by both the vice-president and the president that “their political destinies are closely tied”.
Typically vice-presidents spend the first four years in office proving their loyalty and securing their place on the re-election ticket. Intrigue around their future ambitions is usually fodder for a second term. But Biden’s age and his promise to be a transitional figure has led to speculation that he may not run again in four years, effectively elevating Harris to heir apparent.
During a press conference on Tuesday Biden was asked if he would file to run for re-election early, avoiding the perception of being a president quickly on his way out. But Biden said only: “Watch me, watch me.”
The moves by Harris and people entering her orbit will get close attention for any sort of indication about her 2024 plans. But right now signs suggest that is a low priority for the next vice-president.
Her staff for the vice-presidency are not past political advisers or veterans of her previous campaigns, which is something a vice-president with an eye on 2024 would probably include. Symone Sanders, a former senior adviser on the Biden campaign, will serve as senior adviser and chief spokeswoman for Harris – and potentially a bridge between the newly formed Harris team and the long-serving insiders and allies who make up Bidenworld.
“I think 2024 is probably looming larger for other people than it is for her right now and what she wants to do and what she has to do is do the job that she was hired to do,” said Leah Daughtry, a veteran Democratic strategist. “That’s to be a good vice-president and a good partner for the incoming president.”