Kamala Harris working overtime to be Biden’s progressive ‘bridge builder’

Vice President Kamala Harris is emerging as a critical “bridge builder” between President Joe Biden and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Biden is currently trailing Trump by more than 3 points in the RealClearPolitics general election polling average, yet Harris outperformed the president by 4 points in an approval rating poll published Monday by Monmouth University.

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The vice president specifically outperformed the president by 5 points among voters aged 18-24 in Monmouth’s poll, though both remain firmly underwater in the demographic.

Harris, who herself ran to the left of Biden when they competed in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, has ramped up her public engagements surrounding several issues critical to progressive voters, such as abortion, gun violence, and immigration.

Some Democratic operatives consider 2023 a successful year for the vice president compared to the first two years of the Biden administration.

Shortly after entering office, Biden tapped Harris to serve as the White House’s point person overseeing migration from the Northern Triangle, a position which made her a frequent target for Republican attacks and led to a tumbling of her approval rating.

However, over the past year, Harris consistently hosted events on college campuses for progressive audiences, reassuring them of Biden’s commitment to voting rights, student loan debt relief, equality, and more.

“Vice President Harris has been a critical player in pushing back on the GOP’s narrative that President Biden is too old. If some voters are starting to feel that Biden — whether it be because of his age or decades of moderate policy — does not connect with the issues young voters care about, then Harris is the perfect bridge builder to those communities,” one senior Democratic operative familiar with the Biden campaign’s strategy told the Washington Examiner. “She truly comes from the progressive movement, and her passion for these issues makes clear that the administration will continue to fight for voters in the face of MAGA extremism.”

A second Democratic strategist summed up the situation in a much simpler manner: “She actually looks like us.”

That person specifically noted that Harris, a black woman, is far younger than the president, and that her “conversational yet concerned” tone helps reassure young voters in particular of the administration’s priorities.

The vice president’s office additionally announced Tuesday that Harris will launch a new nationwide “reproductive freedoms tour” in the new year, with the first stop coming in Wisconsin on Jan. 22, the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

White House officials say the tour will “highlight the harm caused by these abortion bans while sharing stories of those who have been impacted.”

“Extremists across our country continue to wage a full-on attack against hard-won, hard-fought freedoms as they push their radical policies — from banning abortion in all 50 states and criminalizing doctors, to forcing women to travel out of state in order to get the care they need,” Harris said in a statement announcing the tour. “I will continue to fight for our fundamental freedoms while bringing together those throughout America who agree that every woman should have the right to make decisions about her own body — not the government.”

This comes as the vice president is reportedly pressuring the president to take a more nuanced stance regarding the fighting in Gaza. Biden has been a staunch supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military action against Hamas despite recently voicing concerns about the political viability of the campaign.

That support has led Biden to hemorrhage support from Democrats of all stripes. His support from Arab and Muslim Americans, in particular, has plummeted in states like Michigan, Nevada, and Georgia. Democratic operatives have expressed concerns that his backing of Israel could potentially cost him reelection.

Toward that end, Politico reported that Harris has privately pressed Biden and other senior administration officials to publicly express solidarity with Palestinians in the face of what Biden himself called an “indiscriminate” bombing campaign and be “tougher” when it comes to pushing for a two-state solution and lasting peace in the region.

The vice president’s office has publicly denied there being any “daylight” between Harris and Biden on the issue.

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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who previously served as a co-chair for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) 2020 presidential campaign, similarly discounted a progressive enthusiasm problem for Biden, arguing that voters recognize Biden gives Democrats the best chance of winning reelection.

“Show me the candidate who will have higher polling than Joe Biden in the swing states,” Khanna said in a statement. “The polling that I’ve seen, that tries to get others into the race, still shows that Biden is the highest in those swing states compared to all the leading contenders that the media has bandied about.”