Vice Presidential Pick Sparks Harris Apostrophe Debate

A Harris apostrophe debate began when Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected her running mate earlier this month.

You may well have missed the lively discussion about where to place an apostrophe when making a possessive for Vice President Kamala Harris. But even if you didn’t see it, the Harris apostrophe debate happened.

The question came up when journalists — and everyone else — started writing about Tim Walz, the running mate Harris selected for her 2024 campaign. Oddly enough, the debate wasn’t about Walz himself. In fact, it wasn’t about who she picked. It was about the vice president herself.

Specifically, the debate started when writers suddenly pondered was whether to write “Harris’s” or “Harris’” when making her name possessive.

The answer would be simple, one might think. We should all be able to reach for one guide that tells us exactly what the correct answer would be. But those of us who study grammar and deal with it regularly in our work know that such things are rarely simple.

In fact, the correct answer could come down to personal preference of a writer who isn’t operating under a style guide. But even professional writers who do have a style guide mandated for their use may have scratched their heads while looking it up.

You see, style guides often disagree on points of grammar. The Harris apostrophe debate serves as a perfect example of this little language quirk.

Should it be Harris’ or Harris’s?

The short answer is, “It depends on whom you ask.”

One of my favorite grammar reference books, The St. Martin’s Handbook, states the rule for plural possessives quite clearly:

Add an apostrophe and -s to form the possessive and most singular nouns and indefinite pronouns, including those singular nouns that end in -s

Benjamin Dreyer, the retired copy chief at Random House who wrote Dreyer’s English, which I told you about in a post last year, agreed. Add -‘s even if the name ends in an S.

“To set the ’s is just simpler, and then you can take your valuable brain cells and apply them to more important things,” he told The Associated Press.

The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal all add -‘s. For them, too, the answer is Harris’s.

But the majority of newsrooms use The Associated Press Stylebook as their style guide. And, as fate would have it, AP Style says you should only add an apostrophe when the name ends in an S. So for AP Style newsrooms, the answer would have to be Harris’.

So for journalists and writers whose style guides disagree, you can imagine the grammar debate reporting on Harris’s or Harris’ running mate might have caused.

Personally, I prefer the -‘s version because I agree with Dreyer that consistency is a good thing.

Unfortunately, my real job requires that I follow AP Style, and I try to follow it here to so my writing is consistent from my real job to my blog. So I’ll have to go with Harris’.

Do you prefer Harris’s or Harris’?