Whatever happened to Kamala Harris?

But the California senator has kept a conspicuously low-profile since Labor Day, declining to make news-shaping statements or upstaging the two-term vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.

Harris did generate headlines after she was unveiled as Biden’s No. 2 last month and has led the campaign’s minority voter outreach efforts. However, it’s her light footprint on the trail that’s now starting to receive attention.

NBC News reporter Deepa Shivaram, for instance, called out Harris’s lack of media access this week in a tweet.

“A reminder that it has been 42 days since Harris was tapped as the VP pick. There are 42 days until election day. The senator has not once formally taken questions from the press,” Shivaram wrote Tuesday.

Shivaram noted in a follow-up tweet that she was referring to Harris not answering queries in an official conference setting.

Harris got in some hot water when she said in a CNN interview earlier this month that she doesn’t trust Trump alone on a coronavirus vaccine’s safety. Critics said that stokes dangerous anti-vaccine sentiment.

And in a Today show sit-down, she beat Biden in calling for the police officer who shot Kenosha, Wisconsin, man Jacob Blake to be charged.

Yet in most of her public appearances and interviews, Harris has hardly strayed from campaign talking points.

“I haven’t read it fully yet, but there’s no question that Breonna Taylor and her family deserve justice yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” she told congressional reporters Wednesday after a Louisville, Kentucky, grand jury charged an ex-detective with three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, tangentially related to Taylor’s death.

Part of the strategy behind Harris’s minimal profile could be to ensure that she doesn’t outshine Biden at the top of the ticket. Her septuagenarian teammate has stumbled on the stump, attracting criticism for relying too heavily on teleprompters and note cards during public events and interviews.

And laying low helps insulate Harris from critics asking who is directing their partnership.

When Biden offered Harris the job, he told her she would always be the last person in the room before he made any major decision. Republican messaging accuses Harris of being the duo’s real power source, amplifying recent mistakes from both Biden and Harris in which they accidentally refer to a Harris administration. She and Biden also issued separate statements last week to mark Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.

But Republican strategist Cesar Conda, who used to advise former Vice President Dick Cheney, attributed Harris’s downsized role to electoral politics.

“I think they have figured out that Harris and her extreme liberal profile is a liability in the handful of critical Midwestern states that they must win,” he told the Washington Examiner.

Harris is set to become a central figure in the Senate as the chamber considers whomever President Trump picks as his third Supreme Court appointee on Saturday. Harris still sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Republicans on the panel will help shepherd Trump’s nominee through the confirmation process. It was Harris’s pressing of Kavanaugh that catapulted her to national prominence, following up her performance during other hearings, including with Attorney General Bill Barr.

Harris’ pared-down campaign schedule still echoes Biden’s though.

Biden and Harris’s quiet bid may be exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and other responsibilities, such as debate preparation. The Trump campaign has largely ignored COVID-19 public health restrictions. Yet similar time pressures haven’t stopped Trump or Vice President Mike Pence notching up significant air miles as they crisscross the country looking to shore up support.

Biden has organized very few multistate days on his public itinerary. Meanwhile, Trump will visit Florida, Georgia, and Virginia on Friday.