John Adams once called it the “most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.”
After all, the creation of the role of vice president was mostly an afterthought of the 1786 Constitutional Convention. The position was limited in power – the vice president presiding over the Senate with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote and, of course, rarely replacing a deceased president.
The duties of vice presidents have waned and waxed over the years but remain ultimately determined by their bosses. Some were viewed as the butt of the joke (think Dan Quayle). Others were seen as strong but unlikable (Dick Cheney, for example). And still others were mostly unmemorable (George Dallas? William Wheeler? Alben Barkley?).
It’s never been a particularly popular position. At best, the selection has been used to balance out some real or perceived weakness on the part of the candidate for the White House – be it in geography or gender or experience. But the myth of the choice for a No. 2 being able to reliably deliver a competitive home state – among others – has wilted, and 21st century vice presidents in particular face a set of obstacles that challenge their public perceptions, including the presence of social media and increasing political polarization.
Some vice presidents once enjoyed a sort of political shield as their bosses took the brunt of the blow when party tensions were high. Mostly out of mind or out of sight, they could avoid public scrutiny.
That’s no longer the case.
“In this age of social media … you get far more coverage than you did in, say, the 1950s,” says Thomas Whalen, a presidential historian who teaches U.S. politics at Boston University. “So you're going to be more prominent. You'll probably earn a lot more enemies in the process.”
Vice President Mike Pence and Vice President Kamala Harris are prime examples. Both started their tenure at significantly lower net favorable/unfavorable ratings than their predecessors, according to a national opinion poll tracker from The Los Angeles Times.
Harris’ favorability ratings are slightly lower than President Joe Biden’s, according to an average of polls from RealClearPolitics. The comparison, however, comes with caveats – one major one being that the vice president is typically not as well known as the president.
“The vice president is competing with the most covered person in America anytime that you're making a comparison with the president,” says Charles Franklin, the director of the Marquette Law School Poll.
The Marquette Law School Poll in March, for example, found that 5% reported they don’t know enough about Harris to assess their opinion of her. That’s compared to 1% of respondents who say the same about Biden.
When it comes to public perception, Biden also didn’t do Harris any favors when he tasked her early in the term to take on the southern border – one of the most politically divisive topics in the country.
“At the beginning of the Biden presidency, she got assigned several sort of thankless tasks,” says Franklin.
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A second term for Biden would continue his reign as the oldest president ever. Knowing this, Republicans have paid extra attention to Harris, especially as the Biden campaign more frequently deploys her to talk about the hot-button issue of abortion access.
Nikki Haley, a former Republican presidential hopeful, singled out the vice president when she said on the campaign trail that America would soon have a woman in the White House female and that it is “either going to be me or it's going to be Kamala Harris.”
But her elevated role in the administration may not be the only reason some in the GOP are targeting her.
“There's no doubt that race is part of that,” says Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the Center for American Women and Politics.
Former President Donald Trump in 2020 said he had heard rumors that Harris doesn’t meet the requirements to work in the White House. He more recently said that if Harris “comes in through the backdoor” to become the first female president it “would not be what people want, especially because it’s her.”
Harris has faced a constant stream of online attacks as well.
A Black woman and U.S.-born citizen whose parents were immigrants, Harris made history as the first woman and first woman of color to serve as vice president.
Because Harris made history in the position, it is possible people are “setting up expectations that are just not consistent with what we did for vice presidents in the past,” according to Dittmar. But perceptions of vice presidents are also increasingly guided by the views and policies toward the overall administration – in much the same way that the opinions expressed by respondents to pollsters on issues like the economy or the direction of the country change depending on what political party holds power.
“I think we have, in this environment, amplified in some cases the degree to which Kamala Harris’ particular favorability ratings matter, electorally, to a degree that I think is sometimes overstated and a little bit of a conflation because, again, her favorability ratings are going to be in large part tied to the administration,” Dittmar says.
Whoever serves as the next vice president is virtually certain to deal with some of the same popularity challenges their predecessors faced. For Harris, it's possible that Republicans will further escalate their criticisms of her as Biden ages.
Trump’s pick, who has yet to be announced, is expected to be a dedicated follower who will probably be relegated to the more traditional vice presidential role of being seen but not heard as the former president continues his top-down approach to leadership, according to Whalen.
Ultimately, for the 2024 election, it’s a rematch of Biden vs. Trump, and the choice of vice president likely isn’t guiding the votes.
“As much as the right is trying to make it about Kamala Harris, I think at the end of the day, these votes are going to be about Biden and Trump,” Dittmar says.
