We all watch the painful clips of Vice President Kamala Harris speaking publicly. It is so memeable that Blaze TV host Stu Burguiere has an entire series called “Veep Thoughts.” In addition to her public speaking gaffes, Harris is a horrible retail politician and has not been able to claim a win on the border, Ukraine, or the voting rights legislation that President Biden gave her to lead.
Yet radio host Larry Elder is confident that she will be the Democrats’ nominee in 2024 if Joe Biden does not or cannot run. Failing that, it will be “her turn” in 2028. In an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Elder explained why. It is a cautionary tale about using identity politics to pander. Often, those you feel the need to pander to hold more power than you think.
After Carlson showed some of Harris’s more cringeworthy clips, Elder stood up for the vice-president — sort of. “I am in California, she is in California, and she has risen from being a DA to attorney general to a U.S. Senator to vice president. It is true that she ran and her campaign went supernova before the first contest. But she did become vice-president,” Elder recounted.
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“Her predecessor in that job, Joe Biden, wasn’t exactly a brainiac,” Elder observed. “And I will tell you this. I know there is a lot of speculation about Biden and Kamala Harris being dropkicked for somebody else.” Then Elder gets into the crux of the reason Harris is the Democrats’ future. “The most loyal part of the Democratic base are black voters. And of those, the most loyal part are black female voters.”
As evidence, Elder recounted the dynamics of primary races in multiple southern states. He asserted that a majority of the Democrat’s primary voters in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina would be black. According to Elder, the lion’s share of that group will be black females. “Kamala Harris enjoys enormous popularity within the black community,” Elder asserted.
Harris’ popularity among black voters is a change from the 2020 primary. Neither Harris nor the other black candidate, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), connected with black voters. Black men were particularly suspicious of Harris’ record as a prosecutor. Politico even noted that black voters were “an enduring bulwark for Joe Biden,” the old white guy who sponsored the crime bill. His history as Barack Obama’s vice president seemed to explain much of the affinity black voters had for him.
Oh, how times change. According to an April 2022 Economist/YouGov poll, 59% of black Americans have a very or somewhat favorable view of Harris. Only 27% reported having an unfavorable view. The same month, Trafalgar found that 58.5% of likely black voters approved of the vice president, with 32.2% strongly approving.
Civiqs currently shows Harris with a 58% unfavorable overall rating, which is only two points worse than when the other polls were taken in April. The data by race is not public. By comparison, her boss Joe Biden has the same overall unfavorable rating of 58%. However, his approval rating among black respondents is 72%. It is likely Harris’ approval ratings follow a similar pattern.
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Elder went on. “There is a publication called Grio. They were very upset about that expose a few months ago that CNN put out claiming that Kamala Harris is being dissed by the Biden people and vice versa. The Grio article asserts that this criticism is superficial and sexist. They think she has been given thankless jobs, like securing the border, when it is Biden’s policies that made borders insecure. They feel she is being picked on for her cackle.”
Grio’s assertion about the border is not wrong. But Trump gave Pence COVID-19. Vice presidents are destined to get the dogs that won’t hunt. And retail politics matter. Harris erupts in a grating cackle at the most inappropriate moments. In corporate America, an up-and-coming future executive would fix the cackle, or it would be a career killer. It certainly does not engender confidence in Harris’s ability to handle stress or delicate situations.
Elder maintains that Democrats will be held hostage by the opinion of black voters regarding Harris and her political future. “I believe if it is perceived that Kamala Harris is being pushed aside, especially for a white male like Gavin Newsom or Pete Buttigieg, black females will be furious. They will go ballistic.” According to Elder, their anger will not make them turn to the GOP. “They won’t vote Republican. They just won’t vote.”
He pointed out that in hypothetical head-to-head polls with Trump and DeSantis, Harris appears competitive, making a potential case for her nomination. “The Democratic Party has spent decades training black people that they are victimized by systemic racism, enduring racism, foundational racism. Use your favorite term. Now all of a sudden, she is going to be pushed aside for a white male?” Elder asked. “I don’t think so.”
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