Last month, Joe Biden, former vice president and current Democratic presidential nominee, announced his selection of Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate and prospective U.S. VP. The 55-year-old senator is the first black woman and South Asian American to earn a spot on a U.S. presidential ticket. Biden announced in early March his intention to choose a female running mate after facing intense backlash regarding the possibility of two white men on yet another Democratic ballot. The U.S. has been waiting with bated breath to see which woman would make the cut.

Now, America has its answer in Kamala Harris. Many anticipated Harris would inevitably be Biden’s VP choice, given her status as a former presidential candidate, a prominent senator, and a vocal supporter of Biden after her own withdrawal from the presidential race.

Although many predicted Harris’s VP candidacy, few analysts supported the Biden-Harris partnership as some auspicious Democratic dynamic duo. Usually, a candidate’s choice of VP running mate is primarily symbolic and low-stakes for any tangible electoral outcome. But given that Biden will be 78 years old on Inauguration Day and the current state of crisis in the U.S., Harris’s appointment is more than a symbol. It’s a legitimate choice for Biden’s potential, and some would say, likely successor. And while Harris’s appointment is a historic move toward equitable representation in the U.S. government, her strengths and weaknesses must all be accounted for when evaluating her legitimacy as a strategic VP choice for the Biden campaign.

During her own campaign, Harris faced a lot of criticism about her policies and political record. She received significant backlash on her oscillating stance on Medicare For All, when she initially came out in support of the initiative and co-sponsored legislation on the topic, before backing down and rescinding her support six months later. She attacked Biden during a debate on his segregationist political history of supporting busing, but later revealed that she actually substantively shared his position on the topic. She also caught backlash on her title as a self-proclaimed “progressive prosecutor” due to her extensive history of being overly tough on crime in the eyes of progressives. Repeatedly, when urged to embrace reforms to the criminal justice system, Harris refused to implement any changes or stayed silent on the matter entirely.

As a result, despite her allure as the first woman of color to be nominated for Vice President, many black voters doubt her candidacy for many reasons including her prosecutorial record. During her own presidential campaign, fall 2019 polls showed Harris falling behind both Elizabeth Warren and Biden himself in black voter support. From a purely electoral strategic standpoint, Harris has little to offer besides her status as the first female person of color to be on a presidential ticket: having Harris on the ticket does next to nothing for Biden’s campaign when it comes to garnering support in U.S. America’s Republican geography.

All of these issues make Harris a somewhat controversial pick for VP with media attention certainly highlighting her shortcomings and problematic past. However, even beyond her status as a female person of color, Harris presents a number of assets to the Biden campaign. She’s tough. She came down incredibly hard on Wall Street and the financial sector after the 2008 financial crisis. Clips showcasing her firm and sometimes aggressive questioning style went viral after Jeff Sessions’ appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, during Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings, and most recently during the Democratic presidential debates.

She’s presidential. Comparatively young, she has extensive electoral experience and has spent a lot of time in the national spotlight as the attorney general of the most populous U.S. state. She’s gained enough bureaucratic and performative experience to be sturdy in a VP role. She poses an enticing opportunity for Biden’s campaign to earn a fundraising boost that many VP nominees typically fail to provide. She also tends to perform well under media pressure and scrutiny, brings much needed fire and energy to her arguments and is, by and large, charismatic, quick witted and well spoken. This is a welcome addition to Biden’s campaign, considering his consistent inability to speak or perform well under pressure or outside of delivering pre-prepared speeches.

Despite her questionable prosecutorial record, Harris has stepped up in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and calls for police reform to co-author a Senate bill banning police chokeholds and call for further reform. And one can’t deny that her U.S. criminal justice system expertise will come in handy when attempting to enact systemic change and write effective legislation with an insider’s experience and guidance.

Considering Harris’s personal strengths, weaknesses and the assets (or lack thereof) that she provides to the Biden campaign, she’s all in all an underwhelming choice for VP. When evaluating other potential candidates for the role, however, it frankly doesn’t seem like Biden could have done any better than Harris. The importance of Harris’s status as a Black and Indian woman on a major party ticket should not be minimized. Not only is her appointment a symbolic move towards representational equity, but studies also show that children who are exposed to female role models are more likely to challenge gender-based stereotypes and seek roles in traditionally male-dominated professions, and that Black students perform better in school when they are exposed to black role models. Harris also provides strong endorsements and funding, offers extensive bureaucratic and political experience and is a strong, capable, intelligent and charismatic choice.

The United States is in shambles. The possibility of another four years of a Trump presidency scares many U.S. voters, but as of now, there’s no clear indication of whether the election will swing Democratic or Republican. There’s not much Biden can do to rise substantially in the polls as they stand now, and no VP choice was going to help him achieve that. Harris was a safe choice and a steady one. She’s the best that Biden — and the U.S. — could have hoped for from a VP during this unprecedented and challenging period of U.S. history.