Vice President Kamala Harris is increasing her presence on the campaign trail, despite Republican criticism and poor polling.
But as Republicans rub their proverbial hands together, President Joe Biden and his campaign remain confident Harris will increase their chances of winning next year's reelection.
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Harris has and continues to be an "impassioned champion" for Biden and the administration, according to Democratic strategist Karen Finney, the vice president using her "voice and platform" to amplify "faces and stories" that may have been marginalized in the past.
"They would not be attacking her if they weren't concerned about how effective she is," Finney told the Washington Examiner. "It's important to remember this is a woman who she's been a first, so she knows what comes with that territory, but also, this is a woman who has taken on tough fights before."
Another Democratic strategist dismissed the Republican argument that a vote for Biden, 80, is a vote for "President Kamala Harris," contending the criticism is "ironic" after the GOP's "Where is she? What's she doing?" attacks.
Harris has, arguably, been mired by her root causes of migration and voting rights policy portfolios, although Democrats cite polling that indicates defending democracy was still decisive to voters during last year's midterm elections.
But she has found firmer footing advocating for abortion access since the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision last summer. She then made a last-minute trip last Friday to Jacksonville, Florida, to criticize the state's new black history teaching standards for school curricula, much like her travel to Nashville, Tennessee, last April after two representatives were expelled from that state's legislature for their gun reform protests. She is now scheduled to be in the Hawkeye State on Friday to counter the Iowa Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner in Des Moines.
"Maybe people are paying a little more attention to these moments, but she has been out there talking about these issues," Finney said.
A Biden adviser disagreed with describing Harris as Biden's attack dog, instead of underscoring what the source called an extreme Republican agenda, including a national abortion ban.
Saint Louis University School of Law professor emeritus Joel Goldstein explained that past vice presidential candidates have participated in a "disproportionate amount of the negative campaigning." For example, Richard Nixon for Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956.
"Vice President Harris does not become an 'attack dog' simply because she criticizes aberrational policies or practices," Goldstein said. "Criticizing policies and practices of opponents helps mobilize a party's base and may suggest to independent voters that the alternative ticket or platform is extreme."
"To the extent that Vice President Harris is performing that role, she may help persuade voters to support the Biden-Harris ticket and other Democratic candidates," he added.
Harris's average favorable-unfavorable rating is net negative 17 percentage points, 37%-54%, according to RealClearPolitics. In comparison, Biden's is net negative 15 points, 40%-55%.
Finney downplayed the polling disadvantage, adamant Biden and Harris are simply "focused on doing their jobs."
"I'm very confident that the American people are going to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris because of their record, what they've accomplished for the country, the things that they have left to do," she said.
Republicans routinely criticize Harris's public remarks, particularly her apparent nervous laugh, with some Democrats discounting that scrutiny as sexist. More substantively, they have criticized her for her immigration-adjacent portfolio as they try to undermine Biden through her. DeSantis, for one, has likened her to the president's "impeachment insurance."
"I don't believe that America can afford President Kamala Harris," former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said earlier this month on Fox News before next month's first Republican primary debate. "The guys on the stage need to understand this is not about being personal. It's not about being petty. They have got to get over it. At the end of the day, we need to make sure that President Kamala Harris is never president of the United States."
"We do not need our party to go to a fourth loss because Joe Biden, in my opinion, is an awful president," former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie added last month on ABC. "We can't afford to have him from age 82 to 86 in the White House or, even worse, have Kamala Harris assume the presidency. That's the stakes here."
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Both Biden and Harris reiterated their criticism of Republican critical race theory scrutiny Tuesday before the president signed a proclamation creating an Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley national monument.
"Today, there are those in our nation who would prefer to erase or even rewrite the ugly parts of our past; those who attempt to teach that enslaved people benefited from slavery; those who insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, who try to divide our nation with unnecessary debates," Harris said. "Let us not be seduced into believing that somehow we will be better if we forget. We will be better if we remember. We will be stronger if we remember."