Kamala Harris’s Doubleheader: A Debate and Hearings With Sky-High Stakes

The last time Kamala Harris stepped onto a debate stage, her Democratic primary campaign was sputtering to a close — running out of money, trailing badly in the polls and fading as a force on policy issues. She ranked sixth in speaking time at that November 2019 debate; she dropped out of the race two weeks later.

Now, as she prepares to face off against Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday and to play a starring role in the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Ms. Harris will be tested as a national leader and a voice of the party unlike ever before. It is a singular challenge for Ms. Harris, who arrived in Washington as a senator in 2017: Can she best her opponents and make the case for Democrats while walking the tightrope of unique expectations that American voters still have for women in power?

Ms. Harris, who is the first woman of color on a major party’s national ticket, has tried to downplay expectations for herself in the vice-presidential debate, reflecting concerns quietly raised by some aides and allies that the standard for her success on Wednesday has grown impossible to meet.

“I’m so concerned,” she said with a laugh at a fund-raiser last month. “I can only disappoint.”

While President Trump spent months waging relentless attacks on former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s mental acuity, lowering the bar for his opponent, Democrats have, by contrast, heralded Ms. Harris as a star prosecutor and talented debater, which carries its own set of risks.