Could Harris bring back Democrats upset with Biden over war in Gaza?

Long before his post-debate woes, President Joe Biden faced pressure from a coalition of mostly young and progressive Americans frustrated by his handling of the Israel-Gaza war, and they warned it could cost him their vote.

Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive nominee after Biden exited the race, has made some of the sharpest statements of any member of the current administration about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But will it sway voters – especially young ones and undecideds – who are seen as key to Democrats retaining the White House?

These progressive voters say that while Harris is more aligned with them than Biden, her policy connections to the administration are still worrisome, and they’re looking to see what she says next about the conflict as the leading Democratic candidate.

Shelley Greenspan, the White House Jewish liaison, posted on X Tuesday that Harris in her role as vice president “will be meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week at the White House. She will reaffirm the our (sic) unwavering commitment to the security of the State of Israel.”

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Greenspan said the scheduled meeting “was separate from President Biden’s planned meeting with PM Netanyahu.”

But the meeting prompts a question for some political observers: Does Harris’ track record of being critical of Israel in Gaza suggest she may seek to differentiate her position from Biden’s?

Outspoken in the Biden administration

Last Oct. 7, Hamas militants led a violent surprise assault on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took more than 240 hostages. The response from Israel’s military has led to a humanitarian crisis and the deaths of more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to Reuters.

Attorney Brian Finucane, who spent nearly a decade as a State Department adviser on the law of armed conflict and war crimes, said in an interview that Harris, by far, has been more outspoken than Biden in terms of holding Israel accountable for what he said were war crimes committed against innocent civilians in Gaza.

In March, Harris called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza because of the "humanitarian catastrophe." This was, at the time, the most pointed statement from any member of the Biden administration.

More: VP Harris presses Israel on civilian deaths in Gaza. What does international law say?

Even before that, she called on Israel to stop killing so many Palestinian civilians.

In a December 2023 speech in Dubai, Harris stopped short of saying the country has committed war crimes in its scorched-earth campaign to destroy Hamas, but she came close, saying Israel “must do more to protect civilian life” in its “devastating” military response to the Oct. 7 attack.

“The United States is unequivocal; international humanitarian law must be respected,” Harris said in the Dubai speech to Middle Eastern leaders. “Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”

But it remains to be seen, Finucane said, how much Harris the candidate will seek to distance herself from Harris as the loyal Biden administration vice president. That’s especially the case during the Netanyahu visit but also over the next few months of the campaign while Biden remains in charge of U.S. policy, said Finucane, who left the State Department in 2021 and is now senior adviser to the U.S. Program at International Crisis Group.

Harris on Israel, Gaza: Here's what the vice president has said on the conflict

As to whether Harris’ new stature as the Democrats' latest standard bearer is cause for encouragement, Finucane added: “I'm not sure if there is much of a basis to form a judgment, and I'm very cautious in making any sort of predictions about what her actual policies would look like. But certainly, as a matter of U.S. domestic politics and U.S. electoral politics, voters may choose to distinguish between the policies of Joe Biden, which they don't like, and what they might hope the policies of Kamala Harris will be.”

Harris the candidate versus Harris the VP

Experts say Harris is in a strange position when it comes to America's posture on the world stage as Biden's deputy and the presumptive Democratic nominee.

"That's a tough one," Bill Daley, former chief of staff to President Barack Obama and chair of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, told Politico.

"I don’t know if she gets more downside by trying to show a separation. She can show that maybe she’ll handle things differently ? not by specifically saying that, but by how she approaches things and how she looks at foreign affairs."

Before Harris, Gore was the last candidate, from either party, to run a presidential campaign while serving as vice president.

"I assume at some point," Daley said in the Politico interview, "she will give a big foreign policy address of the Harris doctrine. And she can lay out a possible difference, if she does believe there is one, other than just saying, 'We ought to have a peace agreement.'"

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And it's not just Biden allies who have noticed Harris' circumstances. Hassan Abdel Salam, founder of the Abandon Biden Campaign, which was formed to oppose the administration's stance on Gaza, said Harris' role in the current White House gives several members of their group pause.

“It's extremely concerning how attached she is to the administration,” he said in a news conference before Biden’s exit was official.

Still, he said, these disillusioned Democrats would be open to Harris’ nomination, should she distance herself well enough from her current boss.

“With the announcement that Kamala Harris has received Joe Biden’s endorsement to be the Democratic nominee, we invite her to meet with the Abandon Biden campaign,” the group said in a statement Sunday. “Our demands remain unchanged: call for and pressure an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza. The new candidate must address these critical issues and break from the destructive legacy of the current administration.”

Israel-Hamas conflict a hot button for Biden's campaign

Biden, as the incumbent, sailed through primary elections across the country this year and was for months considered the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

At the time, though, the president faced rebellion in the form of “uncommitted” voters – a swath of Arab Americans, progressives and young voters casting uncommitted ballots in protest of Biden’s approach to the conflict in the Middle East.

In states like Michigan, a key battleground which held its primary in February, these dissenting votes accounted for about 13% of total votes cast.

Months later, intraparty opposition to Biden grew rapidly, suddenly shared by several members of Congress and major donors. Their concerns, though, centered not on Israel and Gaza but rather a shaky debate performance by Biden that left doubts about his ability to win and serve another four years in office.

Read the full statement: President Joe Biden announces his exit from the 2024 presidential race

Kaleema Muhammad, 58, a voter in Tallahassee, Florida, told USA TODAY before Biden announced Sunday that he would drop out of the race that she was not pushing for him to leave. But she said she had friends hoping for a different nominee.

“A lot of people that I know would normally vote on the Democratic ticket are planning to vote independent,” Muhammad said. “And some have foolishly even suggested not voting at all, because of some of Biden's positions on things that are personal to them,” particularly the Israel-Hamas War.

Voters open to hearing Harris out on the issue

Would those same friends be open to Harris as nominee? “Definitely,” Muhammad said.

Anne Hanna, 45, of Philadelphia, said that while she had generally supported Biden and had planned on voting for him, she “very strongly disagreed” with the way he is handling the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“I think it's appalling,” said Hanna, a graduate student and Democratic voter. “Even if you think that it's all Hamas’ fault and Hamas started it and so forth, just the absolute level of human suffering in Gaza is not something that the U.S. should tolerate and our response has been absolutely inadequate."

Though she hasn’t been following Harris' stances as closely, Hanna said, she hopes the vice president will do better.

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The Pennsylvanian said the issue has been dividing her family and friends, some of whom who are Jewish.

“We've just got to bring the temperature down somehow,” she said.

Hanna said that as far as Harris goes, she has “always been her own woman, and she's gonna to do what she's gonna do.”

“We'll see what she does, and I will vote for her no matter what she does or says, because defending democracy in this country is the foundation of getting anything else done,” Hanna said. “But I hope she will do better because we desperately need that. There's too much at stake there.”

Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Voters upset with Biden look to Harris' stance on Gaza