If Biden steps off the ticket, there is only one person who should replace him

In the wake of a hollow debate performance that left many Democrats nervous about Joe Biden’s prospects for winning reelection in November, the president has vowed to stay in the race, despite the growing calls for his withdrawal.

Whether he stays is up to him, but if President Biden believes he is the only candidate who can beat Donald Trump, I think he should stay in the race and run on his record.

After all, he wrangled votes from both parties to shepherd through the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

He faced conservative court challenges and still delivered $153 billion in student debt relief to 4.3 million Americans.

He presided over historic decreases in homicide and violent property crime. And while inflation remains an issue, stocks are up, jobs are being created, and no one is storming the U.S. Capitol.

But if Biden decided to drop out of the race, there is only one other person who can run on that record: Vice President Kamala Harris.

Republicans are keenly aware of that, and they’ve already started running against her. Their message is steeped in ageism, and sprinkled with a healthy dose of racism and misogyny. Ironically, it’s a message that was initially voiced by another woman of color: former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who said last September during her failed presidential bid, “A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris.”

In my view, statements like Haley’s, along with articles like the New York Post opinion piece that claimed Harris would be “the first DEI president,” are meant to use Harris’ ethnic heritage — her mother was Indian American and her father is Jamaican American — against her.

But if Biden steps aside, and Harris becomes the nominee, I believe such racist arguments could backfire. To paraphrase one of my favorite biblical stories, Harris’ detractors mean it for evil, but God could indeed mean it for good.

Having seen Harris interacting with the Black community, it’s clear to me that she garners the sort of excitement Biden simply does not. If she were to become the candidate, I believe that would translate to votes, especially among Black women.

However, it’s not just Black women who are excited about Harris. A new poll conducted by the firm Bendixen and Amandi Inc. shows Harris beating Trump in a head-to-head race, 42%-41%. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Twelve percent were undecided.

Those undecided voters are the ones who’ll decide the race. Still, winning in November will require bringing out traditional Democratic constituencies, while at the same time fending off the vitriol of the right. Could Harris do it? I think so, and that assessment isn’t based on what she’s said in the handful of interviews I’ve had with her. It’s based on what I’ve seen.

In September 2020, as Harris was running on Biden’s ticket, I was covering her visit, and waiting for her to arrive on Ogontz Avenue in the section of Philly we call Uptown. As I stood speaking with a police officer who was working on the mayor’s security detail, two white men drove up in a car and yelled out Harris’ name preceded by an expletive. Two Black men in a car behind the pair responded by loudly directing the same expletive at them.

It was a reflexive reaction that made me chuckle at the time, but as I look back on it now, I wonder if that reflex would translate to votes. Could a Harris candidacy awaken brothers from their political malaise? Would Black men rise up to defend her from the racism and misogyny she’d face?

Perhaps they would, but the bigger question is whether the larger electorate would support her. Based on her experience as attorney general in California, as a member of the U.S. Senate, and as vice president in an administration with a solid record, the answer should be yes.

However, Harris is a Black woman, and based on what she told me in an interview at the White House in February with WURD Radio, she is not shying away from that fact.

“We have to be clear-eyed and awake in terms of what is happening,” Harris said at the time. “When you’ve got so-called elected leaders who are passing laws to erase our history. To suggest that enslaved people benefited from slavery. To ban books in this year of our Lord 2024. When you’ve got so-called leaders who would erase or overlook the true and full history of America … we have to see it for what it is …”

If Biden chooses to step aside, and Harris steps up, we must also see that for what it is, and elect the most qualified candidate based not only on who she is but on what she’s done.