Joe Biden needs Kamala Harris as his running mate, so stop this talk of replacing her

African American women are the Democrats’ most loyal and reliable voting block. More than 90% of us voted for Joe Biden in 2020; without us, he likely wouldn’t be in office today.

We stand ready to support Biden again in 2024. But he would be wise to keep that old saying in mind: “Dance with the one that brung ya.” If one person takes you to a dance, you stay loyal to that person. You don’t run off with someone else.

Biden needs to remember that when it comes to Vice President Kamala Harris.

The nation’s first Black, Asian, and female vice president has faced a lot of criticism since she took office, which has led some to suggest Biden should consider replacing her on the ticket in 2024.

But Harris is a key part of Biden’s administration, simply because of who she is. By representing Biden’s agenda, she can show voters that his policies can help more than just the white men who have benefited from government policies over the years. And she does a great job with it — especially when it comes to one of the key issues of our time: reproductive rights.

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Just last week, Harris had one of the finest moments of her career, when she became the first sitting vice president to visit an abortion clinic. It’s something no president has done, either.

And once there, instead of talking around the subject the way lawmakers tend to do, she spoke plainly and clearly. “Everyone get ready for the language — uterus,” Harris said on Thursday, following a tour of Planned Parenthood’s St. Paul Health Center — Vandalia facility in Minnesota. “That part of the body needs a lot of medical care from time to time.”

Legislators love to yap on about what women can or can’t do with their bodies. But this was the first time I ever heard anyone even name the body part at issue.

She pointed out issues Planned Parenthood clinics help patients with besides abortions, such as fibroids, breast cancer screenings, and contraceptive care. She handled herself very well, and offered many people reassurance that Biden will protect a woman’s right to choose, despite being a Catholic who once said he’s “not big on abortion.”

As I watched Harris speak, I thought about ill-advised suggestions by commentators who think Biden should replace her with another running mate.

I thought about claims that she never does anything, as if Harris has spent the last four years snacking on bonbons.

I thought about the right-leaning Washington Post columnist who last week derided Harris’ supposedly at times “inane, rambling remarks,” and said she should step down for the good of the ticket.

I thought about criticisms that she is somehow unqualified to serve, despite being a former U.S. senator and former California attorney general.

I wish her critics had watched her outside that Planned Parenthood clinic. Harris was clearly in command and in her element, speaking extemporaneously and with compassion about the disastrous impact the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade had on this country.

“How dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need,” she said. “We have to be a nation that trusts women.”

Therein lies the crux of the issue. Many of the folks who don’t trust their wives, sisters, and daughters to make decisions about their bodies also don’t want a woman — much less one of color — so close to the presidency.

America still has a race and gender problem.

America still has a race and gender problem.

Both of those things play into why Harris is polling even lower than former President Donald Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges. According to a recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll, only 38% of Americans have a favorable view of Harris, vs. 40% for Trump. Pause and let that sink in.

Granted, Harris has had her share of struggles. Biden never should have put her in charge of the border, and she has made her share of gaffes. She would have fared much better focusing on criminal and social justice issues that were more in her wheelhouse.

But it’s not easy being the first to break through a glass ceiling, let alone the first on both racial and gender lines. There is so much extra scrutiny, and any mistake gets magnified.

Like many women, I see a bit of myself in Harris. She and I both graduated from Howard University, the nation’s leading historically Black university, around the same time. We didn’t know each other, but no doubt had some of the same professors and took some of the same classes. Had I pledged a sorority, it likely would have been Alpha Kappa Alpha, the same one she joined.

I began watching her after she won her Senate race, and was thrilled when Biden wound up picking her as his running mate. It paid off handsomely for him, as evidenced by all of the Black women who supported him at the polls.

Biden will need to see a repeat of that in 2024 — and better. He can do it. As long as he has Harris’ back, Black women will have his. The president just needs to keep that old saying in mind: “Dance with the one that brung ya.”