In July of 1864, as the Civil War continued into its third year, Company A of the Maine State Militia headed for active duty at Ft. McClary, in Kittery, Maine. Among the militiamen was Pvt. Hannibal Hamlin, who at 54 years of age was older than most other enlisted men. Despite his age, Hamlin did his duty well enough, including guard duty and company cook, that he was promoted to corporal. What also made Hamlin stand out from the other privates was that, at that time, he was also the sitting Vice President of the United States.
As you can imagine, the role of the vice president has evolved since the Civil War. Due to the vice president’s inherent function as president of the Senate, it is the only position that carries responsibilities in both the executive and legislative branches. In the early years, the VP’s legislative duties were seen as more important and it was far more common to find him sitting in the Senate chamber listening to debate or assigning senators to committees than in the West Wing of the White House discussing policy.
Over time, the vice president’s legislative powers have been whittled down to voting when there is a tie and presiding over ceremonies, such as counting the electoral votes. That is not to say that these powers are not important, especially in an evenly divided Senate that tends to vote along party lines. For example, it did not take long before our current vice president, Kamala Harris, was called upon to break a tie on a bill relating to trillions of dollars in spending, the first of many likely tie-breakers to come. The day-to-day duties of the office, though, have increasingly revolved around the work of supporting the president’s agenda.
The modern duties of the vice president were mostly shaped by Jimmy Carter’s reliance on his VP, Walter Mondale, as a close advisor. In doing so, Carter returned the office to a cabinet-level position. As Joe Biden told Barack Obama when the latter asked Biden to be his running mate, Biden wanted to be “the last voice in the room” when important decisions were made. As trusted confidants, modern vice presidents are often tasked with walking point on important policy decisions. Dick Cheney’s active role in the invasion of Iraq or Biden’s tireless efforts in getting the Affordable Care Act passed may be examples of this role. Vice presidents also continue to perform their more traditional roles, such as representing the president at important ceremonies or occasions in other countries and helping select cabinet officials.
Of course, the most important duty a vice president serves is to step into the presidency if needed. VPs have stepped into presidential shoes following the death or resignation of a president nine times. Some of these individuals’ presidencies were mundane, (I’m looking at you, Millard Fillmore). But other, quite consequential presidents entered the Oval Office this way. For example, upon William McKinley’s assassination, Teddy Roosevelt rose to guide America into an imperial power. Truman was faced with the decision to drop the atomic bomb, thus ushering in a nuclear age, a mere three months after taking office when FDR died. And Lyndon Johnson signed some of the most powerful civil rights legislation into law the year after taking office after John F. Kennedy’s death. As it turns out, choosing a running mate is one of the most important things a candidate for president can do.
Presidential candidates need to be strategic in their choice of a vice presidential running mate. Most candidates will claim that compatibility is the driving force behind their choice, but there are often other factors at play. Sometimes a potential vice president will help win a big state in the election, as JFK hoped by choosing Lyndon Johnson. Although Kennedy did not like LBJ, he knew he needed Johnson’s home state of Texas if he was going to defeat Nixon in what would prove to be one of the tightest races in American history. Sometimes a VP will be chosen to round out the ticket when the presidential candidate is lacking experience in a specific policy area. This is often the case when governors are running for president. They may look to their VP choice for experience in lawmaking at the federal level. Ronald Reagan chose George H. W. Bush because he was a former congressman and ambassador, while Bill Clinton chose Sen. Al Gore.
President Joe Biden didn’t choose Kamala Harris for either of these reasons, however. Biden was in no danger of losing California, and he had far greater experience in the Senate. But by choosing Harris, an African-American and Asian-American woman, Biden was honoring a commitment to choose a woman, showing an appreciation for demographics that have been a driving force in the Democratic Party for a number of years while at the same time dramatically improving diversity in the office. Until Harris, every vice president but one had been a white Protestant man until Catholic Joe Biden broke the streak in 2009.
Harris’s experience in the Senate will serve her well, and her time as Attorney General of California will also help as President Biden navigates a number of issues ranging from LGBTQ rights to gun control.
And as mentioned before, with an evenly divided Senate, Harris is one of the most powerful people in Washington, wielding that power in a way that Hannibal Hamlin could only dream of in his days of cooking for the troops at Ft. McClary.
(Aaron Blais teaches at Exeter High School.)