The New York Times (NYT) editorial board wants Vice President Kamala Harris off the 2024 ticket because of “profound concerns” about her electability.
The push to dump the nation’s first black vice president was posted just after President Joe Biden announced he would not run in the 2024 election — and it could threaten Democratic turnout in November.
The board first provided some throat-clearing praise for Biden:
By agreeing to step down when his term ends in January, he is greatly increasing the chance that his party is able to protect the nation from the dangers of returning Donald Trump to the presidency.
Then it dropped the hammer:
Choosing Ms. Harris would be a reasonable path for Democrats to take; she has been Mr. Biden’s running mate, and while no votes were cast for her as a presidential candidate in primaries, the president’s voters expected her to be on the ticket in November.
Nonetheless, party delegates should have a voice in a decision of this consequence. There are other qualified Democrats who could take on Mr. Trump and win, and picking a candidate without a real contest is how the party got into a position of anointing a standard-bearer that large majorities of Democrats and independents had profound concerns about. While the hour is late, there is still time to put leading candidates through a process of public scrutiny before the party’s nominating convention begins on Aug. 19, to inform the choice of a nominee and to build public support. [Emphasis added.]
The NYT‘s instant push to demote Harris after Biden’s exit helps to explain why so many black politicians were publicly eager to keep the Biden-Harris ticket for 2024. TheHill.com reported on July 8:
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are throwing their support behind President Biden as a growing number of Democrats call for him to suspend his 2024 campaign.
On Sunday, Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) issued a sharp rebuttal of those calling for Biden to step aside.
“Any ‘leader’ calling for President Biden to drop out needs to get their priorities straight and stop undermining this incredible actual leader who has delivered real results for our country,” Wilson said in a statement. “And when you contrast that with a dangerous figure like Donald Trump pushing a radical agenda to be dictator on day one and destroy our democracy, we must do everything in our power to defeat him; Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is the ticket to do just that.”
But the NYT‘s push is also very risky for the Democrats’ disparate coalition. Black Americans provided roughly 11.5 percent of the electorate in 2020 and delivered one in five of the Biden’s votes.
President Donald Trump has been trying to win a large share of the black electorate and is making some inroads among black men, partly because many black Americans recognize that Democratic leaders are eagerly wooing Latino migrants in major cities, including Chicago and New York.
Yet it is also true that Harris’s poll ratings are poor and indicate she may lose to Trump.