Politics

Harris to play a leading role in Biden's 2024 campaign

Key Points
  • In a memo Friday re-election campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and senior adviser Becca Siegel outlined Harris's critical role in the upcoming campaign.
  • The memo coincides with the three year anniversary of President Joe Biden selecting her as his running mate.
  • She will be used as a voice on issues important to the Democratic base like reproductive rights, voting rights, gun control and climate change.
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about the impact of "Bidenomics," at Sycamore and Oak retail village in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC, on August 4, 2023.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

Be prepared to see a lot more of Vice President Kamala Harris.

The central role that Harris will play in President Joe Biden's reelection effort was laid out in a campaign memo Friday, that coincided with the three year anniversary of Biden's tapping Harris to be his running mate.

Harris "remains uniquely popular among several groups of voters that are key to our victory in 2024," wrote Biden reelection campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and senior adviser Becca Siegel.

Over the coming year, the vice president will be strategically deployed to shore up support for Biden among constituencies that make up the core of the Biden-Harris coalition, including young people, people of color and women.

Calling the vice president "a fearless voice on many of the issues that are most important to the core voters in the Biden-Harris coalition," Chavez Rodriguez wrote that she will be a voice on issues important to the Democratic base, like reproductive rights, voting rights, gun control and climate change.

On Friday, Harris traveled to Chicago to headline an event for Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit founded in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre.

The role could provide Harris with an opportunity to redefine herself after a mixed tenure as vice president.

Harris was given a portfolio of notoriously difficult issues to address, like the surge in migration and threats to voting rights, where options are severely limited by a lack of momentum in Congress.

As of Friday, her overall polling numbers remained low: 52.1% disapprove of her, compared to 38.8% who approve, according to the FiveThirtyEight polling average.

But it's not just Democrats who are eager to see Harris on the campaign trail. To Republicans, the California Democrat has proven to be a convenient foil in political attack ads ever since she first entered national politics.