What has Kamala Harris accomplished as Biden's vice president?

Harris has attempted to distinguish herself from both Biden and Trump

(Image credit: Illustrated / Getty Images)

last updated 1 November 2024

After President Joe Biden's recent off-the-cuff remarks seemingly referring to Donald Trump's supporters as "garbage" drew backlash from Republicans, Vice President Kamala Harris attempted to, once again, distance herself from the sitting president. Harris clarified that she strongly disagreed with "any criticism of people based on who they vote for." Her work is about "representing all the people whether they support me or not," Harris said to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. If elected president of the United States, she plans to "represent all Americans."

This is not the first time Harris' former running mate has "created problems by going off script," but this latest incident "served as a particular distraction just as Harris was trying to deliver a high-profile 'closing argument' for her campaign," said The Associated Press. She's spent much of her time on the trail trying to differentiate her role as vice president from what she plans to do if elected.

It is not uncommon for the vice president to struggle to prove themselves in a role largely defined by behind-the-scenes work. Harris' "critics and detractors alike acknowledge that the vice presidency is intended to be a supporting role," The New York Times said, and "many of her predecessors have labored to make themselves relevant, as well." As she pushes forward toward the election, her track record will continue to be heavily scrutinized by her opponents and undecided voters. And yet over the last four years, Harris has taken the lead on several critical issues while Biden focused his efforts elsewhere.

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Abortion has become a central issue for Democrats following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn federal abortion rights. Harris spent much of the 2022 midterms appealing to voters with promises to prioritize and protect reproductive rights. Since Roe fell, she has "been subtly making herself the voice with a megaphone no one can ignore," said Philip Elliott at Time, adding that Harris has met with lawmakers from at least 18 states to discuss the issue. As Biden announced his 2024 candidacy, Harris gave a fiery speech at a reproductive freedom rally at her alma mater, Howard University. She blasted "extremist so-called leaders" for passing restrictive abortion bans.

This year, Harris continued to put abortion at the forefront of her work. In March 2024, she toured a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota that provides abortion services. The White House said it was the first time in U.S. history that a president or vice president has visited a clinic that provides abortion services. The tour was the sixth stop on her "Fight for Reproductive Freedoms" tour, which she started in January to "push for more abortion access in the wake of the overruling of Roe v. Wade," said NBC News.

Biden tapped Harris in the early months of their term to spearhead efforts to address the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. It took her months to make her first and only visit to the area, and the delay elicited backlash from lawmakers on both sides. Her trip to Guatemala and Mexico was ultimately overshadowed by an interview with Lester Holt of NBC News where she "awkwardly downplayed the urgency" of the visit, The Washington Post said. Since then, Harris has borne the brunt of the criticism from Republicans as the border crisis worsens; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) sent multiple buses of asylum seekers from the border to the VP's home in protest.

After withstanding the intense backlash of her perceived inaction, Harris is still attempting to address the root causes of the immigration problem. Her Central America Forward initiative has "yielded more than $4.2 billion in private sector commitments" to support creating local jobs and other measures to slow the flow of mass migration, CNN said last year. Some experts have lauded Harris' ability to secure the investments "as her most visible action in the region to date but have cautioned about the durability of those investments over the long term," CNN said.

Harris still has an uphill battle ahead of her to reverse public opinion about her work, or lack thereof, on the border. In January 2023, the Border Patrol union lambasted her lack of progress. "If you were given a job two years ago with the explicit goal of reducing illegal immigration, and then you sit around and do nothing while illegal immigration explodes to levels never seen before, you should be fired and replaced," the union said on X.

Harris was also at the forefront of the administration's pursuit to codify voting rights protections. She pushed for Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, which would have extended the protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and required federal approval for some local election law changes. The VP "dove into" the "chance to make her mark on a hugely important issue," Eugene Daniels said in Politico. To further that goal, Harris "helped craft political coalitions with civil rights leaders, built outside pressure on Congress, and engaged privately with lawmakers." Ultimately, her work "hit a brick wall" when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and now-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) rejected proposed changes to Senate procedures to stop a Republican filibuster.

Election night is less than a week away, and both presidential candidates are in overdrive as they deliver their last appeals in the final stretch. Harris gave her closing arguments on a daylong tour of a trio of battleground states on Wednesday, which included stops in Raleigh, North Carolina; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Madison, Wisconsin. The tour ended with her address at the Ellipse in Washington, where her opponent made his own fiery speech to supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Harris used the last major speech of her campaign to distinguish herself from her opponent, saying Trump was “consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power.” By contrast, Harris presented herself as a "fighter who would usher in a new generation of leadership," said The New York Times. If Trump ends up elected, on day one, he would "walk into that office with an enemies list," she said. If she wins, she will "walk in with a to-do list."

Harris will reportedly spend election night at her alma mater, Howard University, the historically Black college in Washington D.C., per an anonymous source who spoke to NPR. When she launched her last presidential campaign in 2019, she made the announcement formally from Howard. "I have so many fond memories as a student at 'The Mecca,'" Harris said in a letter she wrote this month to the student newspaper, The Hilltop, referring to the school’s nickname. "I recognize that Howard shaped me into the person I am today."

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Theara Coleman has worked as a staff writer at The Week since September 2022. She frequently writes about technology, education, literature and general news. She was previously a contributing writer and assistant editor at Honeysuckle Magazine, where she covered racial politics and cannabis industry news.