Kamala Harris’s Allies to Biden: Boost Her Profile, or Else

President Joe Biden launched his reelection campaign in late April with a video that employed all the subtlety of a hand grenade. It featured Biden surrounded and endorsed by an array of prominent African Americans, providing political observers with clues about the Biden campaign’s target demographics. Indeed, the video featured more Kamala Harris than voters had seen of her in months. Not since the aborted “Biden-Harris administration” branding campaign had the vice president been positioned so prominently.

And then, just like that, she was gone. Again. The general lack of notice Harris’s absence from Joe Biden’s side has generated adds insult to injury, and her supporters within the Democratic firmament aren’t going to take it lying down. According to a three-bylined item in the Messenger on Thursday, the vice president’s backers hope to coax the president into once again boosting Harris’s profile. And if sweet talk doesn’t work, threats might.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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President Joe Biden launched his reelection campaign in late April with a video that employed all the subtlety of a hand grenade. It featured Biden surrounded and endorsed by an array of prominent African Americans, providing political observers with clues about the Biden campaign’s target demographics. Indeed, the video featured more Kamala Harris than voters had seen of her in months. Not since the aborted “Biden-Harris administration” branding campaign had the vice president been positioned so prominently.

And then, just like that, she was gone. Again. The general lack of notice Harris’s absence from Joe Biden’s side has generated adds insult to injury, and her supporters within the Democratic firmament aren’t going to take it lying down. According to a three-bylined item in the Messenger on Thursday, the vice president’s backers hope to coax the president into once again boosting Harris’s profile. And if sweet talk doesn’t work, threats might.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.