Some Americans are feeling “unsatisfied” with Vice President Kamala Harris going into the 2024 election, while others wonder what the elected official has been up to during her time in office, according to USA Today.
Throughout 2023, Harris headed the White House’s anti-Islamophobia task force and embarked on a tour of America’s colleges to tout different initiatives such as climate change, all while facing low favorability rankings. Despite Harris’ work in 2023, some Americans told USA Today they want the elected official to do more and have been left feeling unhappy with the initiatives she has taken on so far.
“I’m always wondering, why am I not hearing about her?” Julie Raino, a 66-year-old grief counselor in South Carolina, told the outlet. “The fact that I have to look for her is really strange.”
Harris and President Joe Biden have both struggled to gain popularity with Americans in the polls during 2023. The vice president recorded the lowest vice-presidential favorability rating in NBC News poll history, earning a net-negative rating of -17. In June, 49 percent of Americans said they had a negative view of Harris, while 39 percent took it a step further and said they had a “very negative view.”
Andrew Ross Sorkin and Vice President Kamala Harris speak onstage during The New York Times Dealbook Summit 2023 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on November 29, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for The New York Times)
Biden has seen his approval rating slip to the lowest it has been since he took office, falling to 34 percent, according to a Monmouth University poll. While some worry about the president’s fitness for office, some Americans are also worried about who Biden’s successor will be, USA Today reported.
“How is Biden preparing her for the role?” Anne Moncure, a 67-year-old from South Carolina, told USA Today, adding she doesn’t think Harris is up for the role of president.
Vice President Kamala Harris is hitting the road this month on her newly announced “Fight for Our Freedoms College Tour,” stopping in swing states in an effort to mobilize young Americans ahead of the 2024 election. https://t.co/YkWycKCK0t pic.twitter.com/jrmB1jPJ3z
— Cassie Semyon (@casssemyon) September 8, 2023
In addition to trying to address the root causes of migration, Harris announced she would be visiting colleges across the nation in an effort to mobilize students to take action on issues such as climate change, the right to abortion and “book bans.” During that tour, Harris stopped at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, where a sophomore at the institution, Andrew Baxley, asked what actions the administration was doing for the right to abortion, USA Today reported. (RELATED: College Student Grills Kamala On Admin’s Border Policy, And The Crowd Seems To Love It)
Baxley also wanted to ask questions about the border crisis, but the White House instead asked students around campus to submit questions that circled around abortion, gun violence, climate change, voting and LGBTQ rights, according to USA Today. The students asking questions reportedly had to participate in a rehearsal of the event, and Baxley left feeling “unsatisfied” to see the vice president respond to alleged “scripted” questions, the outlet reported.
Baxley tried to talk to the vice president backstage but was turned away by a Harris aide, USA Today reported.
“And I feel as though, had I been able to really have a more personal connection with her, and possibly speak more in depth with her, that could have been possible,” Baxley said, saying he left without having a positive feeling about the vice president.
With 2023 coming to an end, the vice president has set her sights on 2024, announcing another tour of the country, this time to advocate for the right to abortion. The vice president will kick off the tour with a trip to Wisconsin, targeting the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to reverse Roe V. Wade and give the authority to regulate abortions back to the states.
“In the new year, I will be traveling the country to organize, build community, and fight back. Because when we fight, we win,” Harris said to close out her 2023 initiatives.