Kamala Harris wants to be U.S. president. Her mixed record might make it an uphill battle

Hours after Joe Biden made the stunning decision to end his bid for re-election, Vice-President Kamala Harris — with Biden's endorsement — announced that she is running for president in the 2024 general election against Donald Trump.

Harris, a former prosecutor and California senator who first ran for president in 2020 before she was picked as Biden's running mate, said she was "honoured to have the president's endorsement."

"My intention is to earn and win this nomination," wrote Harris in a statement. She is not guaranteed the nomination until she is voted in by delegates during the Democratic National Convention next month.

"Over the past year, I have travelled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead," she said.

If elected, Harris's presidency would be historic, making her the first woman and first South Asian to serve as president. She's led the Biden administration's response on key issues including immigration, voting rights and abortion.

But she has an uphill battle ahead, having struggled with public image issues and poor polling throughout her vice-presidency. 

Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, first ran for president in 2020 after serving in the U.S. Senate and as attorney general of California. Her presidential campaign was marred by low polling and messaging issues, leading her to drop out of the race before the primaries began.

She continued to poll poorly during her first year as vice-president, amid a growing perception that she had been cast aside by the Biden administration that year — to the point that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre released a statement stressing that Harris was a "vital partner" to Biden.

Harris was further challenged by early turnover among her staff. The Washington Post called it an "exodus," and a Politico investigation found that aides and senior officials were "experiencing low morale, porous lines of communication and diminished trust."

Early into her vice-presidency, Harris was appointed by the Biden administration to lead its immigration response at the southern U.S.-Mexico border, and was tasked with understanding what was driving mass migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

One of her most significant achievements came when she secured $4.2 billion US in private-sector investments for job creation and economic development in Central America. The initiative was meant to quell the flow of migrants out of those countries and into the U.S., and the administration has said that it's on track to reach its goals in the region.

Yet Harris was criticized on both sides of the aisle for delaying a trip to the Mexican border, and some conservatives called her a failed "border czar" who had dropped the ball as the humanitarian crisis at the border intensified.

Another key issue in Harris's vice-presidential portfolio is abortion rights, for which she became an especially outspoken advocate after the June 2022 overruling of Roe v. Wade.

At the beginning of this year, she launched a "fight for reproductive freedoms" tour that was meant to push for further access to abortion across the country, while mobilizing voters on abortion issues ahead of the election.