“Find someone who won’t hurt,” said former California Democratic Party chairman John Burton, who told Dodd. Burton said he was concerned that President Donald Trump and Republican allies would mount Harris’ showdown with Biden on the stage of the race debate.
Despite those question marks, there are compelling reasons why Harris hasn’t moved off the top of Biden’s VP charts.
No other contender equates his experience as someone who was elected three times statewide in the nation’s largest state and who has been through the scandal of a presidential campaign. As the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, she would be a historical selection.
Her procedural skills inspire confidence that she would defend, and then something, against Vice President Mike Pence in a debate. She was close with Biden’s late son Beau, a fact that could help offset lingering doubts about the bus attack.
A former Biden adviser described Harris as “Level 1,” while “everyone else is Level 1B.” The person added: “All those other people have the Harris bar challenge: it’s so high. She reviews everything that is so important to him. ”
Doug Herman, a Democrat strategist in Los Angeles who headed a super PAC pro Harris when he ran for the Senate in 2016, said “it would be difficult to bet against Harris.”
“There may be some drawbacks to what happened in the debates, but she makes a great addition to the ticket,” he said. “The downside of this is that historically it’s the dark horse candidates who ended up being chosen, and people don’t see it coming because they’re focused on the favorite.”
Reid said Biden has not been decided. Harris, she said, is among a group of women who are still being considered, including Senator Elizabeth Warren. Although Harris does not have the VP position locked up, Reid said Biden is “too chivalrous” to support the debate incident against him.
Harris declined an interview request about the search, as he has done throughout the VP process. But her allies have been trying to convey to the Biden team and publicly that beyond her own appeal, she could be a trusted partner. They point to the endorsement scores he obtained from current state of origin officials.
“She is someone who has always loved campaigning and working on behalf of other people, going back to her first campaign for State Senator Barack Obama. She often feels more comfortable talking to others than to herself, ”said Brian Brokaw, a Democratic strategist who handled Harris’ nominations for the state attorney general.
Democratic strategist Karen Finney said Harris has an advantage after building a national profile by running for president.
“The reality is that you have a short time frame and you are trying to win the election,” Finney said of Harris’s advantage over others. “How you do it is also a challenge, given the reality of Covid. You can’t do the big rally “to present a new face to the nation.
Carla Marinucci contributed to this report.
