Until now, she has been relatively invisible, but thanks to President Joe Biden’s mistake, more and more eyes are on her: US Vice President Kamala Harris. If Biden withdraws from the presidential race, as most Democratic voters want, Harris will be his most likely replacement.

The big question for Democrats is whether Biden will keep the honor for himself and make way for someone else. The next question is: Do they really have a better chance of becoming president with Harris?

Harris’s life trajectory is fascinating, however. The daughter of immigrants, after studying law, she became a prosecutor in 2004 and then California’s attorney general. In 2017, she became a senator for that state and four years later became vice president.

Despite her impressive resume, she was not appreciated by her peers and the public, says her biographer Dan Morin. “Maybe because she was the first woman in California to hold that office and the second black woman elected to the Senate. She was different from the rest.”

In 2019, Harris is running for president in 2020, but she never polls highly. As vice president, things have not been easy for her in recent years. She has been tasked with tackling the seemingly insoluble immigration problem. In 2021, she falsely claimed to have been at the southern border with Mexico. She was so criticized that she called the media He evades and becomes invisible to the general public for a period of time.

Her popularity is low. “She got off to a very slow start,” said Donna Patterson, a political science professor. “The White House didn’t include her in many initiatives.”

Now the Democratic Party will be wondering whether its image is good enough to compete with Trump. “Harris appeals particularly to young people and black women,” says US expert Leila Frank. “But she doesn’t carry the middle vote with her.”

After the debate, Biden recovered, but he continues to make blunders. This week, he called Harris “Trump”:

“The most interesting thing right now is what the Democrats will be made up of,” Frank says. “What if you pair Harris with a white centrist running mate? That could appeal to a large group of voters.”

But before that happens, Biden must drop out of the race. The delegates he accumulated in the primary will then be released, allowing them to vote for a different candidate at the party’s convention in August.

Frank explains that there are different scenarios for this. “Biden, in consultation with the party leadership, could put forward an ideal candidate, perhaps Harris. As a delegate, you have to be very strong to object to the party leadership’s choice, especially if there are no serious challengers,” he added.

The other option, Frank says, is to hold an open convention. “As a party, you have the least amount of control over this. Anyone can then put themselves forward as a candidate, and a rabbit can also come out of a hat.” The unlikely scenario is that Biden stays but a “coup” is staged at the convention: The delegates don’t vote for him, even though he won the primary.

Frank believes Biden will not leave in the coming days. “It’s raining, it’s raining criticism from the party, but as long as lightning doesn’t strike, he’ll stay.”

Voters want Biden to step down, but Democratic members of Congress do not want to publicly reject him, although they say anonymously that they In panic We are. Their logic seems to be: If Biden stays, he is doomed to fail even if we criticize him publicly.

Either way, once the field clears, Harris will be ready. Biographer Maureen predicts she’ll have a good chance against Trump. “She’s uniquely positioned to campaign against Trump. There’s a nice contrast: prosecutor versus criminal. She has thick skin and can respond to Trump’s attacks well. She can be tough.”

Admittedly, the public doesn’t know Harris very well yet and she does. In the ballot boxes She’s not much better than Biden, but that could change quickly once she enters the spotlight as a presidential candidate, Frank says. “If she debates well, people’s perceptions can change. A lot depends on the moment.”