(PresidentialHill.com)- Despite having a president in the White House who’s eligible to run for re-election in 2024, Democrats have been throwing around names as possibilities to be the party’s nominee next year, in no small part due to President Joe Biden’s poor approval ratings.
A major challenge for Democrats in this regard is that they don’t have many great candidates that instantly jump off the page. The vice president would typically be a natural successor to a president, though current Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t have a huge following in the party.
In addition to how she has performed as vice president so far, Harris was a major failure as a presidential candidate herself during the 2020 campaign. Still, because of the lack of other viable candidates — and the visibility Harris receives as the current vice president — she vaults to the top of the list of potential Democratic candidates for 2024.
What is being slightly overlooked so far in these hypothetical discussions — and what could be the more interesting aspect of it all — is who Harris might name as her vice president if she were indeed to become the Democratic nominee.
One of the more interesting candidates for that role could be the outspoken and extremely progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. AOC has made a lot of noise in the House as a Democratic representative from New York. She’s ahead of the so-called “Squad” in the House, a group of young representatives who push a very progressive agenda.
While she has been criticized for her stances on many policies, one thing is for sure — she’s been able to increase her public profile in her short time in Congress. There are plenty of other people in the Democratic Party who might be more qualified to serve in the role of vice president, but maybe no one who has the recognition that AOC has.
A hypothetical Harris-AOC campaign for 2024 would be a huge move to the far left. AOC herself is very progressive, and Harris is considered that as well. While neither has been able to get much done in pushing their progressive policies thus far, if they were to capture the White House, they might have more clout.
Of course, there are many questions that would surround such a presidential ticket. First, would they even emerge as the nominee for Democrats? They’d get a lot of publicity as the first-ever all-female presidential ticket, plus they have great public personas now.
However, they have many detractors as well. The country has already shown a dislike for far-left progressive agendas, which would appear to be the type of agenda they would push.
More importantly, though, is whether they’d be able to actually win a trip to the White House. While they’d have their die-hard followers within the Democratic Party, most moderates and conservatives in the U.S. have expressed how much they’re against some progressive policies such as full-blown cancellation of student loan debt and defunding the police.
It may be far off that a Harris-AOC presidential ticket would actually happen in 2024. But, it’s fun to talk about, for sure.
