Vice President Harris to Campaign for Newsom in California

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to be in California next week to campaign for Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom in the state's upcoming recall election.

"I am excited to join my friend and our Vice President next week," Newsom said in a statement. "The stakes of this election couldn't be higher."

A former California attorney general and U.S. senator, Harris is coming to Northern California to campaign for Newsom in a close recall race. Recent polls have shown Newsom clinging to a narrow lead over a large Republican field led by conservative talk radio personality Larry Elder.

The vice president has faced criticism in the last week for her lack of visibility as the Biden administration faces a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

The New York Post reported that Harris has not been seen in public since Aug. 12, when she cut short a meeting with CEOs to discuss the Biden administration's child care proposals to attend an intelligence briefing as the Taliban began their final offensive.

Since then, ''she has only appeared in still photos put out by the White House. Her only public statements have been on Twitter. She was not by Biden's side, as she has been on other occasions, when he attempted to defend his decision to withdraw all U.S. combat forces from Afghanistan in a White House address Monday,'' the Post report detailed.

Harris left Friday for a previously scheduled visit to Vietnam and Singapore. While out of the country, a White House official told The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, the vice president will receive regular briefings on Afghanistan and will remain involved in discussions on the Biden administration's next steps.

Although Harris has recently seen decreasing poll numbers, she still has considerable support in California and in the Bay Area, where she launched her political career as a prosecutor, Politico noted.

Analysts have said the recall race will likely come down to voter turnout. One of Newsom's biggest hurdles is lack of enthusiasm among Democratic voters compared with Republican ones, a reality that his campaign likely hopes Harris' visit will be able to address. 

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