EDITORIAL: Harris can’t run from Joe Biden’s many messes

Kamala Harris secured more key endorsements on Monday as she moves toward becoming Joe Biden’s replacement on the Democratic ticket. Nancy Pelosi bestowed her support on the vice president. Chuck Schumer soon followed.

Ms. Harris has raked in oodles of cash since Mr. Biden dropped his decision Sunday with a posting on X. The Associated Press reports that her campaign has raised more than $81 million in just the past few days.

Her nomination appears increasingly inevitable. While some Democrats grumbled about the process bypassing the rank and file, most expressed relief that the Biden deception is finally over.

But Ms. Harris brings her own baggage. Her primary asset is that she’s not Joe Biden. She takes the age and senility card off the table for Republicans. The president’s very public mental missteps and obvious deterioration were a major concern for voters, particularly among all-important independents. Ms. Harris will turn 60 in October. Donald Trump, meanwhile, turned 78 last month.

Ms. Harris, though, has never generated the support necessary to prevail in a national campaign. With just two years in the Senate under her belt, she opted to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, but crashed and burned. She dropped out before the primaries began. This time, she’d have the full resources of her party behind her, but that will be of little solace if her message remains muddled and her appeal an inch deep.

She’s also tied to the hip of an unpopular president.

Polls show voters highly dissatisfied with the current White House on a number of issues, including immigration and the economy. Yet Ms. Harris has been a cheerleader for the very policies that created the highest inflation in four decades, wreaking havoc on middle-class families. She did little to quell the mess at the southern border after Mr. Biden tasked her with uncovering the “root causes” of illegal crossings. Ms. Harris has also been part of an administration that has exerted more pressure on our ally Israel than on Hamas terrorists to lay down arms in the Middle East.

If anything, Ms. Harris is to the left of Mr. Biden on social issues, embracing the scourge of wokeism. She’s a staunch defender of the right to abortion — a winning issue for Democrats following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision — yet refuses to advocate for any limits on the procedure, sanctioning abortion up until birth, an extreme position.

These are all issues that Mr. Trump can exploit if he runs a disciplined, inclusive campaign that focuses on strengthening the country moving forward. The Democrats may have their new face, but she’s burdened with the same old record.