“Al Gore was able to ‘reinvent the government’ as his portfolio, which real people did not understand,” said Rose Kapolczynski, longtime adviser to Barbara Boxer, Harris’ predecessor in the Senate. “Harris will have tiebreakers to save lives in a pandemic.”
Harris and Biden emphasized that she will be a “total partner” of the president-elect, in a role that Biden compares to his own under former president Barack Obama. But unlike Biden in 2009, California’s first-term senator does not have many clearly defined political routes that could become a natural place to find problems for herself. In addition to speaking about cabinet nominee launches and briefly stopping at small events promoting charities and businesses in Washington, she worked mainly behind the scenes during the transition period.
Harris, who is expected to run for president again in the future, has been cautious about taking political measures that might irritate Biden, who did not say whether he plans to run for re-election in 2024.
In the run-up to the Georgia elections, Harris said little in public or in private about the prospect of serving as a tiebreaker vote. She resisted for a long time engaging in hypothetical scenarios and spent her time focused on the transition, hiring employees and preparing for January 20. She joined Biden in the campaign in Georgia, making a late populist appeal to voters and criticizing Republicans for blocking $ 2,000 COVID- relief checks.
The legislative affairs unit of the Biden transition, however, was already planning the possibility of victory, even with Democrats close to the president-elect and vice-president-elect remaining pessimistic about winning both seats in the Senate. The transition team is now focused on finalizing its legislative plan and it is unclear where Harris fits into this strategy, according to two people familiar with planning.
Had the Republicans maintained their advantage, Harris’ functions on the Capitol would almost certainly have been much more limited. Biden’s decades in the Senate and his personal history with outgoing majority leader Mitch McConnell made him the natural channel for the chamber where Harris served for only a few years.
The Republican Party’s reach will not be as important now, although advisers emphasize that Biden will remain deeply involved in the Senate negotiations and will continue his efforts to get to the other side of the corridor.
But with Democrats enjoying a minimal majority, Harris must play a more important role in publicizing Hill, where he could deliver crucial votes on pandemic relief, infrastructure, climate change legislation and, perhaps, a new Supreme Court judge.
“Biden’s stories about vote disputes (and then oversight) of the stimulus package showed voters what he was delivering to real people,” added Kapolczynski. “After two years of breaking ties in the Senate, Harris could have his own collection of stories on important issues.”
Serving as the 101 in factst senator may have his shortcomings, however. Harris’ domestic and international travel, for example, could be limited by the Senate’s mysterious and unpredictable programming. In just the past few weeks, Harris, who is not expected to formally give up his Senate seat until next week, has been forced to return to Hill to vote.
“She doesn’t want to be too attached to the Senate,” said Joel Goldstein, the vice presidential historian and author of “The White House Vice Presidency: The Road to Significance, Mondale for Biden.” “Time there means less time elsewhere.”
There is no direct historical analogy for the position that Harris takes on January 20. The vice-presidency has changed dramatically in the last half of the century, mainly with regard to legislative power. Starting under Vice President Richard Nixon in 1953, No. 2 ceased to chair the Senate so often and moved its main office to the executive branch. Vice President Walter Mondale, in 1977, was the first to move to the White House and the president’s inner circle.
The last time the Senate majority was split was in 2001, when Dick Cheney was vice president, and before that, in 1954. In both scenarios, the tie lasted six months or less.
Rapid polarization has caused each party to vote as a bloc more often and the partial end of the obstruction is making tiebreakers more common, Goldstein noted.
Now, Harris’ role as a tiebreaker, said a Democrat close to the transition, will become a centerpiece of the Biden government’s planning for the first 100 days.
“She is doing what John Lewis taught us,” said Bakari Sellers, a close ally of Harris and a former South Carolina state representative, reflecting on the importance of racing in Georgia, which took place six months after the legend’s death congressman and civil rights leader. “Enter the pages of history.”