Vice President Kamala Harris is a history-making individual, as the first woman of color to be elected to the position, but that does not seem to be positively influencing how Americans view her.
According to RealClearPolitics, Harris’ average favorable rating sits at 37.7%, while her unfavorable rating is 51.9%.
And a new poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times found that voters in her deep blue home state of California do not have much better views of her.
That survey found that her approval rating is underwater as 38% of California voters approve of her job performance while 46% disapprove.
Meanwhile, voters are evenly divided about President Joe Biden’s performance.
Since Harris assumed office over a year ago, she has faced a barrage of negative stories about her leadership style and reported tension with West Wing staff as well as an exodus of staffers.
As The Washington Post reported in December, “Staffers who worked for Harris before she was vice president said one consistent problem was that Harris would refuse to wade into briefing materials prepared by staff members, then berate employees when she appeared unprepared.”
A former Harris staffer told the Post, “It’s clear that you’re not working with somebody who is willing to do the prep and the work.”
“With Kamala you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So you’re constantly sort of propping up a bully and it’s not really clear why,” they added.
Additionally, Harris has also made headlines for her strange responses to questions she should have had ready answers for.
During an interview with NBC News last month, she was asked if the administration should reconsider its response to COVID-19.
Her response was quite the world salad.
“It’s time for us to do what we have been doing, and that time is every day,” she said. “Every day it is time for us to agree that there are things and tools that are available to us to slow this thing down.”
And early in her tenure as vice president, Harris was criticized for awkwardly bursting out in laughter when confronted by the press.
Democrats probably hoped that they had an appealing presidential candidate in the waiting in case Biden, 79, does not run in 2024.
However, the fact that Harris is underwater in California shows that they may be in trouble if they wind up in a situation where she runs for president. Not that this should be a surprise since she dropped out of the 2020 Democratic primary before voters cast a single ballot as her polling plunged into the single digits.