Ongoing criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t something she and other women of color in power haven’t been forced to grapple with before. Despite the fact that simply having the role is historic in and of itself, the 57-year-old also bears the weight of being the successor to the oldest president in U.S. history.

Although her first year in office has been impressive, Harris has been scrutinized in a way that’s unlike so many of her predecessors in the role. Talk around D.C. has ranged from petty, with comments about her being “difficult” to work with, to Republicans and Democrats sparring about her being “too radical” and “not radical enough.” 

Her approval ratings equal President Joe Biden’s; a recent CBS News poll found that Americans have given her a 44%.

Harris has been tasked with some hefty high-profile assignments, from immigration and the root causes of migration and border security to voting rights legislation, as well as myriad foreign policy issues such as global health security, the rights of women and children, and strengthening relationships with the nation’s closest allies. All of this is on top of the fact that we’re all facing a pandemic with no immediate end in sight. Harris and the administration are already fielding questions about whether or not Biden will run again in 2024. 

But Harris, much like Biden, has tried to ignore the babble on the Hill and simply put her head down and trudged forward getting the work done. 

She has faced up to one of the biggest challenges on her docket: the unprecedented number of migrants arriving at the U.S. border from Mexico and Central America. Biden asked Harris to address the underlying causes of the surge. She launched a “Call to Action” initiative and was able to secure a $1.2 billion investment from private companies into Central American countries to create economic opportunities. One senior Mexican foreign ministry official told The Daily Beast, “Her result-oriented focus has made a big difference.”

Harris has also cast 15 tie-breaking votes in 2021, more than former Vice President Mike Pence during his entire four years in office. She has used her vote to push through a slew of key appointments including Rachael Rollins, now the first Black woman to serve as U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, and the appointment of Catherine Lhamon as assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education, a position Lhamon held under former President Barack Obama’s administration. 

During Harris’ trip to France, she made significant progress in reassembling our broken relationship with French President Emmanuel Macron after Trump all but pissed in the guy’s bouillabaisse. Then she was able to convince the U.S. to participate in a Libya forum, where she represented our country. 

“Through dozens of meetings, calls, and overseas trips, Vice President Harris has taken on some of the most important challenges our country faces—whether that addresses the root causes of migration, reinforcing global health security, or standing up for the rights of women and girls. As we saw in Paris, she is equally adept at deepening our relationships with our closest allies and partners, as she has done in the Indo-Pacific,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told The Daily Beast. 

Harris has also continued to champion technology’s impact on foreign policy, particularly focusing on cyberattacks during her discussions on trips to Europe and Asia.  

“She has advocated for a stronger response to cyber-attacks and threats—as in the case of the recent ransomware attack. She is focused on 5G, AI, Quantum and the need to strengthen our cyber defenses, be more aggressive about the attribution of attacks, and to hold attackers accountable,” Ambassador Nancy McEldowney has said. 

Harris has pledged not to give up on the issue of affordable child care despite the lack of support in Congress. 

“We’re not going to give up on affordable child care. We’re not going to give up on some of these issues that really get to the heart of what people need and they want. They want solutions, they want things to be fixed,” she said.  

And as for the failure to pass the voting rights bills in the Senate, Harris said the administration will continue fighting. 

“We will keep fighting to get the legislation passed because that is critical. So, we are not giving up on that,” Harris said.

When it comes to the two voting rights bills that were not passed, we know now it had less to do with Harris and more to do with Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema as the nation’s two biggest Trojan horses to date.

But what continues to dog this administration is whether or not Biden will be a one-term president and what that will mean for Harris.

When asked by a reporter Wednesday if Biden was satisfied with Harris’ work on voting rights and whether she would be his running mate in 2024, Biden replied unequivocally: “Yes. And yes.”

“She’s going to be my running mate, number one. And number two, I did put her in charge. I think she’s doing a good job.”

According to multiple sources, Harris is intimately involved in decisions with Biden on how to handle the country’s most pressing issues. 

“One similarity between the Obama-Biden relationship and the Biden-Harris relationship is that he insists she be in every core decision-making meeting. She weighs in during those meetings, often providing unique perspectives. And when everyone else leaves the room he will often ask that she stays and they talk. While their experiences are different, he values her willingness to ask tough questions,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. 

Biden will be 82 at the end of his term, and although it’s not known if he’ll run again or not, Harris must continue to do the job at hand. According to those on the inside, she’s doing a damn good job despite the scrutiny.