Op-Ed: Kamala Harris is the Best Vice President in Modern History

     Kamala Harris made history when she was sworn into office as vice president on January 20th, 2021. She was the first woman, first black person and black woman, first Asian person and Asian woman, and first HBCU graduate to hold the second-highest office in the land, among numerous other historic firsts. However, breaking down barriers doesn't just mean attaining office: it means demonstrating that one can perform well in that office, regardless of race and gender. Vice President Harris has done just that.

     Let's start with the only two duties given to the VP in the Constitution: breaking ties in the Senate and taking over if the president dies. The latter hasn't happened and hopefully never will, although Harris has been temporarily given the powers of the presidency on multiple occasions while President Biden has had routine medical procedures. Since taking office, Harris has also cast 17 tie-breaking votes. In 2021, she broke the record set by John Adams for tie-breaking votes cast in a single year when she cast 15; Adams had cast 12 in 1789. She has since cast two more; her tie-breaking votes have confirmed progressive federal judges, U.S. attorneys, and other nominees; secured the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act; and more. She is on track to cast at least two more this May: one that will give Democrats a majority on the FTC and allow it to halt price gouging by oil and gas companies and another that will allow Lisa Cook to serve as the first black woman on the U.S. Federal Reserve, where she will tackle inflation. This will tie her with George Dallas behind only John Adams and John Calhoun in terms of the number of votes cast. If she can cast 32 tie-breaking votes, and she is on track to do so, she can cast more than any veep in U.S. history; her 32nd would also be the 300th cast by any vice president in U.S. history (100 was cast by Richard M. Johnson and 200 was cast by Thomas Marshall.) We need to keep up the pressure on Congress: some of these votes need to be for a Build Back Better Act.

     Let's take a look at some of the work she has done outside of Capitol Hill. She has fundamentally changed America's relationships with Honduras and Guatemala in her efforts to stem the root cause of immigration with a surge in U.S. funding for anti-corruption, public health, and humanitarian projects in the two nations and a call to action that has resulted in a multi-billion dollar private sector investment in the nations. El Salvador may be run by a right-wing populist dictator, but Vice President Harris attended the swearing-in of a new government in Honduras while the DOJ charged its corrupt former president and intends to put him in prison for the rest of his life; for the first time, the U.S.-Honduras partnership is a strategic dialogue. She strengthened the U.S. partnership with Vietnam, Singapore, and the other ASEAN nations; visited Germany, Poland, and Romania to bolster U.S. support for NATO in the face of Russian aggression against Ukraine; and repaired damaged relations with France with a series of meetings with Emmanuel Macron. She has overseen the largest government equity project in American history while leading an historic effort to bolster maternal health, especially among women of color; led efforts to protect the right to organize that resulted in nearly 75 governmental policy changes; headed the Space Council that has produced a landmark expansion of itself to fight climate change and promote education, more than doubled the membership of the Artemis Accords, and banned anti-satellite missile testing; and fought for voting rights with a task force that created the executive order on promoting voting.

     How does this stack up among the other vice presidents in modern history? Walter Mondale, George H.W. Bush, Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, Joe Biden, and Mike Pence all had some fairly solid achievements to boast of during their stints as second-in-command. However, the amount that Kamala Harris has done in a span of 15 months in unprecedented by any vice president, and, for these reasons, I think she is the best vice president in modern history.