Flashback: Dems are now bullish on Kamala Harris, but that wasn’t the case in 2020

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote Presidential Town Hall at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on July 13, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)

Several Democrats have expressed their support for Vice President Kamala Harris as a replacement for Joe Biden in the 2024 race for the White House, but many of them haven't always been enthusiastic about the possibility of her serving as the nation's commander in chief.

Harris launched her campaign for president in January 2019. She suspended her campaign a little more than ten months later, in December 2019, after participating in five Democratic presidential primary debates.

At the time, Harris struggled with stagnant polling and fundraising, failing to earn support from many of those in her party.

Today, however, amid growing uncertainty from members of her party over whether Biden has what it takes to serve four more years in the White House, many of the Democrats who endorsed his bid for the White House in 2020 are looking to Harris as the next best thing.

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., a longtime Biden ally, is one such example. The prominent Democrat endorsed Biden's bid for the presidency in Feb. 2020, nearly a year after he announced his campaign in April 2019. Now, however, he believes Harris should replace Biden should he drop out of the race.

Clyburn told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell recently that the entire party would need to "bolster" its support for Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee if it had to happen. He also blasted those who might want to "work around" her and choose someone else at the top of the ticket considering her low polling.

"We should do everything we can to bolster her, whether it’s in second place or the top of the ticket," Clyburn said.

Former Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who challenged Biden and Harris for the 2020 presidential nomination, also wrote in a recent Newsweek op-ed, "Kamala Harris Should Be the Democratic Nominee for President in 2024."

A recent poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about six in 10 Democrats believe Harris would do a good job as president herself. About two in 10 Democrats don’t believe she would, and another two in 10 say they don’t know enough to say.