For now, at least, Harris and Buttigieg, barrier-breaking Democrats who failed in their initial White House bids, are the highest-profile prospects to succeed Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket in 2024 or 2028, although other promising candidates are all but certain to emerge. Biden has said he plans to run for reelection, but as he nears his 79th birthday, even some of his allies are not sure he will.

Many Democrats see Harris’s and Buttigieg’s political fortunes as diverging in the first 10 months of Biden’s presidency. While Buttigieg has become a visible advocate for the administration’s top legislative achievement, Harris often has been associated with its biggest trouble areas, including immigration and voting rights — and, in the past week, U.S.-French relations.

“Those of us that are supportive of the vice president, or who were supportive of her when she was running for president, we realize she’s been the face of some of the hardest issues,” said JA Moore, a South Carolina state representative who backed Harris in the Democratic primaries, then endorsed Buttigieg after Harris dropped out. “It would be nice to have some things that she could rally the nation around. But that’s not what she’s been given.”