Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Launch the 2024 Presidential Election Together – Will She Be His Successor?

UNITED STATES – Kamala Harris is a former President of the United States. It was November 19, 2021, when Joe Biden had a colonoscopy. She emerged from the shadow of the vice-presidency for 1 hour 25 minutes before returning the reins of power to the president. But with the officialization of the Joe Biden’s candidacy for 2024, who still chose her as a running mate, Kamala Harris will once again attract the spotlight.

Because at the dawn of thepresidential election, the age of Joe Biden questions. At 80, he is already the oldest sitting president of the United States. He will be 86 years old in 2028, the end of his potential second term, which does not fail to be pointed out by the Republican opposition and to raise questions among the Democrats.

“We were always told that voters vote for the presidential candidate, not the vice-president. But because Biden will be 86 at the end of the second term – and the chances of his health declining are not slim – people will be asked to vote as much for the vice president as for him,” underlines in an editorial the journalist of the New York Times Thomas L. Friedmann, who claims to have voted for Biden in 2020.

Kamala Harris, heiress of Joe Biden

The American president knows it, and it is no coincidence that Kamala Harris, 58, appears more than a dozen times in the video where he announces his candidacy. She must attract young voters, assume her place as vice-president after two mixed years, and prove that she deserves to accompany Joe Biden again. She must also have her face printed, because in the event that the president finds himself unable to lead or if he dies during his term of office, it is she who will replace him, as required by the Constitution.

In this context, Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to hold the post of vice-president, will suffer direct attacks from the right, anticipates with the Huffpost Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy, lecturer at Sciences po Saint-Germain-en-Laye and specialist in the United States.

She will particularly be the target of the ex-president Donald Trump already entered the presidential race, a man who is “racist and sexist”adds Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy. “Kamala Harris will now be much more scrutinized. How will she get out of this? », he wonders.

The former California attorney general and senator stood out during her short-lived 2020 presidential campaign. Struggling in the polls after a few months, she threw in the towel even before the start of the campaign. Democratic primary, then was appointed as Joe Biden’s running mate a few weeks before the election.

A trap file on immigration

Much younger, a woman, from a minority background, her goal was to dust off the image of the president. But the great hope of the Democratic Party has since lost its splendor. “She was in charge of the immigration file, a very complicated file. She was particularly criticized by Republicans because she took a long time to get to the border with Mexico.recounts Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy.

Like Joe Biden, she has also been the target of mockery from her opponents after gaffes. For example in June 2021, a reporter asked her why she hadn’t been to the US-Mexico border yet. “I haven’t been to Europe either”she retorted with a laugh, drawing criticism from the opposition. “Vice President Thinks Border Crisis Is A Hilarious Joke”replied to him in particular on Twitter the Republican Kevin McCarthywho has since become President of the House of Representatives (equivalent to the National Assembly).

Like any vice-president, Kamala Harris also has a very erased role and could not impose herself to appear in place of, or opposite, Joe Biden. “She is weak in the polls [environ 42 % d’opinions négatives, au même niveau que Joe Biden selon le site Five Thirty Eight, NDLR], SO the Democrats have decided to take someone who has already beaten Donald Trump”analyzes Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy.

Placing your pawns for 2028

The specialist in American politics believes that the November midterm elections last, which were surprisingly very good for the Democrats, were the trigger for this choice. “No Democratic personality, apart from the president, has the shoulders for the presidential election, he explains. We will really have a Biden-Trump match. It is inevitable: even if Trump is not chosen by the party in the Republican primaries, he will never give up and he will surely present himself as an independent. »

Nevertheless, the one who is “one heartbeat from the White House” according to the consecrated expression, remains “interesting card” to play, says Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy: “The party is in the process of redoing its image: she went to a meeting on abortion after the announcement of Joe Biden’s candidacy, she puts forward the fact that she is a woman and her origins to show the diversity… “

If this political makeover is important in the perspective of 2024, it must also make it possible to lay the first milestones for 2028: a vice-president often becomes the designated successor of the president he has served, like Joe Biden after Barack Obama.

However, the road still seems long for Kamala Harris, underlined on Radio Canada journalist Alexis Buisson, author of a biography on the vice-president: “It is still difficult to identify the subjects that animate or motivate her. If she hopes to win an election one day, she must be able to articulate or express a vision for the United States that is also different from that of Joe Biden. »

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