As calls mount for President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race following a shaky debate performance, speculation has turned to who would be the best person to replace him; and the person who seems the clear choice, Vice President Kamala Harris, is not grabbing Democrats' attention amid concerns over her polling figures.
Biden has long faced concerns about his age and mental acuity, which came to a head following Thursday's debate, in which the 81-year-old president at times stumbled over his answers and appeared to lose his train of thought.
He has since faced calls to drop out from the race from within his own party, just four months before the election.
Newsweek has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment via email.
Harris would be the obvious person to turn to should Biden quit the race, being the president's deputy and first in the presidential line of succession.
But many Democratic speculators have been quick to overlook her, citing her poor polling, and instead have turned their attention to people like California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Others, however, disagreed with this position, citing Harris' role as second in command as the overriding factor.
"The whole point of being vice president is it means you're second in line, you're next up. And so it would just make no sense if we were to choose someone other than Kamala," Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo told Newsweek.
"If Kamala Harris isn't qualified, then why has she been our vice president for three and a half years? That just makes no sense."
In an emailed response to Newsweek's queries, Harris' spokesperson Kirsten Allen pointed to several of the vice-president's interviews since the debate.
In many of the interviews, Harris reiterated her support for Biden and called on people to focus on his record over the past three and a half years, rather than a single 90-minute debate performance.
Many have been quick to point out the poor optics of sidelining the first female vice president, who is also a woman of color.
Lakshya Jain, who works for electoral analysis site Split Ticket, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "Harris is the *only* replacement choice in the unlikely event that Biden steps down. Even if you set aside the logistics of it all, how exactly does anyone think the party is going to bypass the first Black, female VP who leads all primary polls? You think things are bad *now*..."
Another X user noted: "Harris polls worse than Biden, but it's sacrilege to pass over the most obvious replacement when it's a Black woman."
Sam Rosenfeld, an associate professor of political science at New York's Colgate University, commented on the "crazy" narrative that there is no obvious candidate to replace Biden if he were to drop out.
"I know Harris has obvious political weaknesses and suffers from this kind of permanent all-pervasive collective skepticism, but still—this 'no clear replacement' is just crazy to me. She's the vice president!" he wrote.
Rachel Bitecofer, a political analyst, wrote on X: "Literally everyone who has told me Harris could be skipped over and Black voters would get over it has been a white person. Look, I'm so white I blend into snow, but I'm here to tell you, you f** over Black women, you are done."
Polls show that Harris is the top choice among voters to replace Biden should he abandon his reelection campaign.
But polling averages also suggest that Harris has an even bigger disadvantage than the president if she were to run against Trump.
RealClearPolling averages show that limited surveys suggest the former president leads Harris by 6.6 percentage points, with 49.3 percent support to the Democrat's 42.7 percent. The averages show Trump ahead of Biden by just 1.5 points, with 46.6 percent to the president's 45.1 percent.
In response to questions about Harris' polling problem, Trujillo pointed to the fact that no Democratic candidates are polling particularly well right now.
"Folks will say, 'well, look at her polling.' But no one's polling is great," he said, adding that her numbers would likely be boosted if she became the nominee and launched an official presidential campaign.
"In all the states that matter, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, they have really strong African American communities," he noted. "And who better than an African American woman to help turn out and increase the number of ballots we get from African American voter Democrats?"
Trujillo said that he believed the nomination would be Harris' unless she decided she did not want it.
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