Kamala Harris Emerges as the Favorite to Replace Joe Biden Atop the Dem Ticket

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In a development sure to cause heartburn among many Democrats, the deeply unpopular Kamala Harris has emerged in the past 24 hours as the most likely candidate to replace Joe Biden as the Democrat nominee for president in the 2024 election.

According to Politico, there was a “vibe shift” in the party yesterday, with top Democrats acknowledging that replacing Biden with Harris made more sense than “their wishcasting about certain ambitious governors.”

“For the first time in years, Harris seems to be having a genuine moment,” Politico reported.

The shift in the media narrative came after Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) called on Biden to pass the baton to his veep, and a CNN poll showed Harris outperforming Biden in a head-to-head with former President Donald Trump.

“We have to rip the band aid off! Too much is at stake,” Ryan wrote in a post on X. ⁦”@VP has significantly grown into her job, she will destroy Trump in debate, highlight choice issue, energize our base, bring back young voters and give us generational change. It’s time!”

The CNN poll has Harris beating Trump by 29 points with people of color, versus 21 points for Biden. Harris also did better than Biden among independent voters, actually winning that group by three points.

And although Harris has historically weak approval and favorability ratings compared to other Democrat hopefuls, she does have access to something they can’t have: the $240 million Biden-Harris campaign war chest. “Other candidates would start nearly from scratch,” Politico noted.

Democrat insiders also told Politico there’s little “appetite for a knock-down, drag-out fight culminating in a contested convention,” if Biden steps aside.

“For the vast majority of delegates, Harris is a known quantity who has already been tested at the highest level of national politics,” Politico said.

Jamal Simmons, Harris’ former communications director, told the outlet that “the physics of the nomination fight” favors Harris.

“The more people understand the physics of the nomination fight, the stronger her candidacy becomes,” Simmons said. “It’s delegates, it’s the racial and gender dynamics. … And she also is the most vetted of the people right there. There are no more shoes to drop with her.”

Nonetheless, Harris has registered historically low approval ratings throughout the Biden years, with the worst net negative rating of any vice president in polling history. Arguably, Harris’ unpopularity is due in large part to her unpleasantly disingenuous style, her penchant for expressing herself with indecipherable “word salads,”  and her bizarre habit of repeating a certain saccharine phrase over and over and over again.

Her chief of staff Lorraine Voles reportedly told other staff members on Monday that Harris is supporting Joe Biden, and “there would be no tolerance for engaging in the Plan B parlor games that had dominated Democratic politics in the days since Biden’s disastrous debate.”

According to Politico, Voles told the staff that they all have “to do their part to leave no doubt about whose name would appear atop the Democratic ticket.”

Since Biden’s debate meltdown, Harris has reportedly “batted away” questions about him stepping aside. “Look, Joe Biden is our nominee,” she said on Tuesday. “We beat Trump once, and we’re gonna beat him, period.”

Meanwhile, veteran Democrat operative Donna Brazile told Politico “Joe Biden won the Democratic nomination. To undermine the voters in this country at this hour would be the worst thing the Democratic Party could ever do.”

In what Politico called “a fly on the wall moment” Wednesday, Biden and Harris were scheduled to have lunch together at the White House.