Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
For three years, I’ve consistently heard this critique of Vice President Kamala Harris: “Where is she? What is she doing in her role?” Although President Joe Biden and his surrogates have consistently branded his policies as the Biden-Harris White House, the notion that the vice president is missing in action seems to persist.
However, as the 2024 campaign heats up, it is clear that the Biden-Harris campaign is utilizing the vice president in matters international and domestic and making her the face and voice of a more progressive campaign strategy. But it is uncertain if Harris’ recent high-profile events and speeches eight months before the election can undo years of mockery and doubt engendered by temperament and sometimes unintelligible combinations of words and phrases.
Since the role of the vice president has never been clearly defined, this is the time for Harris to be emboldened. The intersection of racism and sexism she has experienced as vice president already placed her in a category by herself. The historic nature of the modern-day threats to our democracy from abroad, at home, and even within our institutions makes her speeches and activities even more pressing and relevant as we near Election Day on Nov. 5.
A few weeks ago, it was Harris, and not Biden, who gave a forceful speech about the Israel-Gaza conflict. Whereas the president (at the time) still was trying to outwardly work with and support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it was Harris who more directly called for a ceasefire. It was Harris who recently marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge with civil rights leaders past and present to commemorate Bloody Sunday and evoke the image of a young John Lewis fighting for civil and voting rights.
As Biden laid out his administration’s support for a…
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