A majority of Americans want Vice President Kamala Harris to be President Joe Biden's running mate in the 2024 presidential election, according to a poll conducted exclusively for Newsweek.
Polling has found, however, that many Americans are concerned about Biden's age. At 80, the Democrat is the oldest president in U.S. history and would be 86 at the end of a second term if he were reelected.
As a result, some Republican presidential hopefuls have made Harris a target, and claimed that a vote for Biden would really end up being a vote for her, as she is next in line for the presidency.
A poll by Redfield & Wilton Strategies surveyed 1,500 eligible U.S. voters between September 3 and 4 on behalf of Newsweek.
Asked who should be Biden's vice-presidential nominee should he win the Democratic primary in 2024, 30 percent chose Harris.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as a Democrat against Biden, came in second place with 12 percent of voters thinking he should be Biden's running mate. He was followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders with 6 percent and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg with 5 percent.
However, nearly one in five (19 percent) of people surveyed said it does not matter to them who the vice presidential nominee is, while 16 percent said they do not know who it should be.
Harris was the top choice among those who voted for Biden in 2020, with 54 percent of them saying she should be the 2024 nominee to run alongside the president.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press in Jakarta, Indonesia, where Harris attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in place of Biden, she said the idea of her possibly stepping into the role of president was "hypothetical," but she was ready.
"Joe Biden is going to be fine, so that is not going to come to fruition," she said.
"But let us also understand that every vice president—every vice president—understands that when they take the oath they must be very clear about the responsibility they may have to take over the job of being president. I'm no different."
Harris also praised Biden in the interview.
"I see him every day. A substantial amount of time we spend together is in the Oval Office, where I see how his ability to understand issues and weave through complex issues in a way that no one else can, to make smart and important decisions on behalf of the American people have played out," she said.
"And so I will say to you that I think the American people ultimately want to know that their president delivers. And Joe Biden delivers."
