Presidential Election Special: The Harris Factor

A Special Look at The United States
Presidential Election of 2024

One major lesson from Vice President Kamala Harris’ sudden ascension to be the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is that running mates matter.

Backup quarterbacks need to be ready for big games, and vice presidents need to be ready for the Oval Office, as this election year has proven on both sides of the political aisle.

Former President Donald Trump was nearly killed by a would-be assassin before he officially selected Sen. JD Vance. Harris is set to be Democrats’ consensus nominee only because President Joe Biden stepped aside after questions were raised about his ability to do the job for four more years.

It’s a point not lost on some Republicans who are second-guessing Trump’s selection of Vance and Democrats who are anticipating Harris’ pick any day.

Of 49 US VPs, only 4 accomplished what Harris is attempting
“Veepstakes,” as the informal selection process is frequently called, can feel irrelevant and overwrought as pundits pick apart the attributes and drawbacks of potential vice presidents. Trump compared the process to his old reality show, “The Apprentice,” in which he picked the best person to hire.

CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere reports the Harris campaign plans to hold up Trump’s pick of Vance as evidence that the former president is not good at hiring people and that Vance is unqualified to be president.

Harris’ selection of a running mate – the first major decision of her unexpected campaign – is expected before planned joint appearances next week and in time for Democrats to include the potential veep’s name when delegates officially select the Democratic ticket during the first week of August.

An awkward introduction to voters

Trump picked Vance on the first day of the Republican National Convention in July at the urging of one of his sons and to carry his MAGA movement into the future. Old-school Republicans were immediately alarmed because the pick also signaled a new direction for the GOP, at least rhetorically, on issues from organized labor to foreign policy.

The public’s introduction to Vance, the young senator from Ohio – he turns 40 in early August – who first became famous for writing a by-the-bootstraps memoir of his path to success, has been rocky.

Vance’s past comments about women could hurt Republicans’ chances with a key voting bloc. His past opposition to Trump, before a conversion to a MAGA true believer, makes Vance now seem like an opportunist.

 

Ancestry of Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris is of Jamaican descent on her paternal side and of Indian descent on her maternal side. According to the Los Angeles Times, "Gopalan (Kamala's mother) was a Tamil Brahmin, part of a "privileged elite" in Hinduism's ancient caste hierarchy."^[42] Donald J. Harris wrote in an account of his family ancestry that the Harris name comes from his paternal grandfather Joseph Alexander Harris, a land owner and agricultural produce exporter, and that his paternal grandmother "Miss Chrishy" (née Christiana Brown) was a descendant of Hamilton Brown, a plantation and slave owner.^[43] However, Snopes rated this claim as unproven pending further research. Snopes noted that Harris made errors in some of the vital dates he provided for births and deaths of his grandparent

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