When a group of cross-voters were asked during a focus group about Vice President Kamala Harris, their assessments were brutal: If she's helping Biden, you don't see it. She annoys me. She was chosen because she is a demographic. The great things she had, she failed.
The comments, fair or not, pose a problem for President Biden and Harris, as echoed in interviews with voters here in Arizona, a key state where Harris spoke on Friday. More than three years into the oldest president's first term in history, his replacement has failed to win over a majority of voters or convince them that she is ready to step in if Biden falters, polls show.
“Swing voters don't like him,” said Gunner Ramer, political director of a group called Republican Voters Against Trump, which allowed the Times to view videos of three focus groups, including the crossover group that featured people who voted for former President Trump. . in 2016 and Biden in 2020.
It wasn't just former Trump voters who were negative about Harris. In a focus group of Black voters who were disappointed in Biden, none raised their hands in support of Harris, with one participant calling her “the bad news bear.” A focus group of California Democrats, while they liked Harris, had to be prompted to talk about her and said she needed more influence and exposure.
Many of Harris' allies and supporters say the trials are influenced by racism and sexism, noting that other vice presidents remained in the background with less scrutiny and saw their popularity tied to the top of the list. Some people in the focus groups criticized her clothing or compared her to Hillary Clinton in comments that seemed to validate those concerns.
But his low popularity could pose a political problem that his predecessors have not faced, given the focus on Trump and Biden's ages, 77 and 81 respectively. More than half of voters, 54%, said she is not qualified to serve as president in a March USA Today/Suffolk poll, compared to 38% who said she was.
“If there was a health event for either candidate, the vice president is front and center in terms of people who may be undecided, people who don't like both candidates,” said David Paleologos, who conducted a survey of USA Today/Suffolk that asked voters their evaluation of Harris. “And there are many whose decision may depend on their comfort level with the vice presidential choice.”
Harris has heard the criticism since entering the White House with a historic win in 2021. While she rarely responds directly, she has stepped up her appearances with major Democratic groups, often maintaining a stronger campaign and travel schedule than the of Biden. Many allies believe her role as the administration's leading voice on abortion rights will boost her and the Democratic nomination on an issue that helped lead the party to unexpected success in the 2022 midterm elections.
He spoke Friday in Tucson, three days after the state Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 abortion ban can be enforced in the coming weeks. She framed Democrats' case against Trump, who took credit for overturning the Supreme Court's ruling against abortion rights and last week said each state should decide the issue.
“Just like he did in Arizona, he basically wants to take America back to the 19th century,” Harris said.
Several voters said in interviews in Phoenix on Monday that they didn't know Harris was in their state just a few days ago, underscoring the challenge of gaining attention as vice president in an era of information overload.
“If he's coming for us, he doesn't show it,” said Tracey Sayles, a 52-year-old black Democrat.
Sayles voted in previous elections for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Biden, but now says his choice is 50-50 in the upcoming election, despite calling Trump “vulgar” because Biden “seems sick.” He would have driven to see Harris in Tucson if he had known he was in the state, he said, but he feels the vice president has been hiding.
Another voter who doesn't like either Trump or Biden, Jeff Garland, said he hasn't seen much of Harris either.
“But from what I've seen of her, she doesn't seem like someone I want to lead my country,” said Garland, a 57-year-old retired military officer who said he voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020 and planned to sit out in 2024. .
Kellie Hoverson, a 31-year-old Democrat, said she was “not enthusiastic about Biden” but was more optimistic about Harris, despite hearing concerns from younger friends and family about her history as a prosecutor in California.
“I just want a female president,” he said. “I just want to see it in my life.”
Studies by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which works to promote women's equality in politics, suggest that women face an “imagination barrier” when running for top executive offices, because voters find it more It is difficult to imagine them in the same position as white men. , who have historically held the positions.
“Men can see it and women have to show it,” said Amanda Hunter, the foundation's executive director.
Polls suggest that Harris, who dropped out early in the 2020 presidential primary, has made inroads with the Democratic base. Three-quarters of Democrats had a favorable view of her in the USA Today/Suffolk poll, which showed just over a quarter of independents viewed her favorably.
Brian Fallon, who serves as her campaign's communications director, said she “has proven to be a highly effective messenger on issues ranging from reproductive freedom to gun violence prevention” and said she is “uniquely positioned.” to mobilize critical groups across the Biden-Harris coalition. including both progressives and independents.”
The fact that many voters say they remain unfamiliar with Harris is something her allies and advisers see as an opportunity, because it leaves room for persuasion as more voters focus on the race in early fall.
“This isn't a matter of one or two speeches, it's four or five months of just working,” said Cornell Belcher, who was one of former President Obama's pollsters.
Belcher argued that the small portion of persuadable voters who give Harris their lowest ratings won't decide the race; Instead, it will be a question of whether Democrats can rebuild their coalition of young voters, women and people of color who got Obama re-elected in 2012 and formed the backbone of Biden's 2020 victory.
“I'm more concerned about these younger voters taking the exit ramp, like they did in 2016,” he said, crediting Harris for her work reaching them on college campus tours and other outreach.
But there are also questions about inconsistencies in surveys of voters ages 18 to 29, given the small sample sizes of the subgroups. A poll conducted in early April by Emerson College showed that Harris had fairly high favorable ratings among younger voters, nearly 49%, while another Economist poll conducted a few days later showed that only 34% of that group of age viewed her favorably.
It is unclear whether Trump, who has not frequently attacked the vice president, will resume his attacks on Harris, who is unsurprisingly toxic among the Republican voter base. “If they cheat in the election, it could be Kamala,” Trump said during a March rally in North Carolina, echoing his false claims of widespread voter fraud.
He quickly refocused on Biden: “We have enough problems with this guy.”
A senior Trump campaign adviser, Danielle Alvarez, called Harris irrelevant. “The political reality is that Biden is underwater and he is a failed president,” she said. “She's probably just like him in those failures, but he's the target.”
Whit Ayres, a veteran Republican pollster, agrees that running mates generally don't affect votes, but points to Sarah Palin in 2008 as an exception, largely because polls showed dual concerns about the health of John McCain and Palin's fitness for office. He maintains that Harris, whom he characterizes as a walking gaffe, presents a similar problem.
“There may be plenty of time, but if you don't have the ability to be more articulate and look like you're ready to be the leader of the free world, it's going to be difficult to do that,” Ayres said.
Harris has that time. She is quite busy with public events, but vice presidents, by design, don't tend to attract much attention compared to the president.
As the campaign heats up and Trump chooses a running mate, she is likely to be seen more and, potentially, in a different light.
“For people who have doubts about her, ultimately the question for them will be how does she look compared to X?” said Joel Goldstein, a historian who studies the vice presidency. “Now, she is compared to an ideal figure.”
