After hitting some turbulence in her first year in office, the political team of Vice President Kamala Harris has put into place a number of changes in a concerted effort to boost her public reception and political future.
Four years after she walked into the Senate Chamber, former California state attorney general and US senator Harris moved into the Naval Observatory.
After taking office last January, she faced a series of media reports about her office's problems, and news of stagnant approval ratings, which advisors and supporters feel have hampered her fortunes.
A major effort is being made by Harris' team to reset after the inauguration.
The vice president has brought on a well-known Democratic analyst to be her communications director at a time when her office has lacked consistent messaging.
After stepping back from attending large events alongside President Joe Biden, Harris has become a more visible presence, as evidenced at the signing of the bipartisan infrastructure bill in November and their joint appearance in Atlanta on Tuesday where they both pushed for the passage of voting-rights legislation that has stalled
Harris had a limited number of interviews with media figures on his schedule, but has had a stronger television presence recently.
The vice president will become a familiar face on the campaign trail as Democrats face political challenges in keeping their congressional majority in 2022, a relief to many who want to see her engage with voters ahead of an expected Biden reelection campaign and a potential presidential run in 2028.
This week's voting-rights speech in Atlanta was a sign of what will be a more substantive influence on public policy from Harris, especially for issues that are being closely watched by the American public.
Harris introduced the president after he spoke in support of the Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
She said that her children and her grandsons will ask about this moment in the future. They will look back on this time and ask us what we did, not how we felt.
We can't tell them that we let the Senate rule stand in the way of our freedom.
The vice president still has several challenges to contend with.
The Atlanta University Center Consortium is located on the grounds of Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University and is where Vice President Harris is speaking.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
She can't vote.
Harris has not yet announced a replacement for her former senior advisor and chief spokesman, who left the role in late December and was recently named as the host of a new weekend show on MSNBC.
After Harris was tapped to focus on the causes of migration from Northern Triangle countries, Republicans launched a series of attacks about the increase in illegal border crossing and asked her to visit the US-Mexico border. Many Republicans criticized the vice president for not coming to El Paso sooner.
Some in the Biden administration were "quietly perplexed" by her response to the NBC interview, in which she stated that she had not been to Europe as vice president, according to a CNN report.
According to the Post report, Harris is trying to put aside her defensive posture after the NBC interview and is looking at engagements with caution.
While the vice president gave an interview with NBC's Craig Melvin earlier this week and forcefully advocated for the administration's voting-rights push in a manner that was pleasing to many Democrats, she was also grilled about the timetable for COVID-19 tests, which have been in short supply across
500 million free tests will be made available to Americans by the Biden administration. Harris said that they are doing it and that the tests could have been distributed sooner.
Some Harris supporters are frustrated that Biden has given Harris difficult issues like immigration and voting rights, which will require a Herculean effort and a near- perfect set of circumstances to make visible progress.
Unlike Biden, who had decades on Capitol Hill, Harris did not have the contacts or deep relationships that her boss had.
According to the Post report, aides said that it has been hard for Harris to debunk the narrative that she is a difficult employer, especially with articles that have mentioned everything from "soul-destroying criticism" to longstanding supporters feeling restricted in their access to the vice president.
The New York Times reported last month that Harris privately told her allies that her media coverage would be different if she were a white male, noting her trailblazing status in the role and the high expectations that come with such a distinction.
Donna Brazile, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee and the campaign manager for former Vice President Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, said that the issues tasked to Harris are complicated and can't be fit into a set timetable.
She can't vote. Brazile told The Post that no one can own a century-long struggle. This is a big assignment. It took a civil war and a civil rights movement to get us to where we are today. It will take a lot more to get us further.
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