Michelle Obama polled better than Kamala Harris as a potential Democratic candidate

Kamala Harris is now Democratic candidate for the US presidential election in November. However, experts still bring up one name that could have better chances than Joe Biden's VP.

Harris replacing the current US President as a candidate isn't exactly unexpected. A Reuters/Ipsos poll, released in early July 2024, revealed that one third of Democrats said Joe Biden should drop out from the White House race.

The same Reuters/Ipsos poll names only one Democratic Party figure capable to safely defeat Donald Trump: Former First Lady Michelle Obama.

The idea isn't exactly new. Back in early 2024, The New York Post commented that there were rumors that the Democratic Party could draft the wife of former US President Barack Obama instead of Biden as their presidential candidate.

CNN reported that casinos in Las Vegas by mid-February placed Michelle Obama with more chances of becoming US President than then-Republican hopeful Nikki Haley (pictured) and third only to Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Indeed, Michelle Obama has become one of the most popular figures within the Democratic Party right now, as political news website The Hill writes.

The idea of Michelle Obama running has been rumored in previous election cycles and commented by conservative politicians such as Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz also shared this view on Fox News back in September 2023: “Next summer at the Democrat National Convention that the Democrat Party will jettison Joe Biden and will throw him off the ticket, and they will parachute in instead, Michelle Obama to be their candidate”.

Nonetheless, The Hill highlights that these rumors aren’t true and describe them as mere “far-right speculation”, trying to use the former First Lady as a bogeyman in QAnon-style conspiracy theory circles.

According to The Hill, Republican strategist Karl Rove, who was a key figure during the George W. Bush administration, doesn’t believe that Biden will be the nominee but calls the idea of Michelle Obama taking his place “pure lunacy”.

“She didn’t want her husband to run for the state Senate”, Rove affirmed, pointing out Michelle Obama’s autobiography. “She didn’t want him to run for the presidency. She is not a political animal.”

Indeed, former Obama Administration advisor David Axelrod told CNN that Michelle Obama, albeit a brilliant communicator, was “conscripted” into politics due to her husband’s career.

Writing an Op-Ed for the website Politico, conservative journalist Rich Lowry argued that even if Michelle Obama had wanted to run at this stage, it was too late.

“Outside the question of whether she’d want to do it, she has never run for anything, and it’s quite possible that she’s not actually a skilled political candidate”, Lowry, who is editor-in-chief of The National Review, remarks in his Politico piece.

Michelle Obama herself has said several times she’s done with politics after living in the White House for 8 years.

However, it’s important to remember that these days it’s not enough for a First Lady to look nice next to a powerful man in a suit. They also have to be political players, whether they like it or not.

For example, just look at Hillary Clinton. These days, Clinton's work in Congress and as Secretary of State seems like a lot more than Bill Clinton’s lukewarm record as US President.

After leaving the White House, Michelle Obama has become a recognized public figure in her own right, advocating for several initiatives going from nutrition to poverty to education.

Michelle Obama has also become noteworthy as a public orator, a video content producer, and a nonfiction author.

In 2019, the former First Lady was named one of the 100 Most Influential Women according to TIME Magazine.

The next year, in 2020, Michelle Obama won a Grammy for Best Audiobook for her memoir, ‘Becoming’.

According to Gallup, the former First Lady has been regarded the most admired woman in the United States for several years in a row.

Again, Michelle Obama has said in the past that she doesn’t have any political aspirations. But if she did, would that be so bad?