Struggling Harris campaign cuts staff, overhauls strategy
WASHINGTON — California Sen. Kamala Harris is overhauling her presidential campaign as she falls further behind in the race, cutting staff and investing most of her resources in the first voting state of Iowa.
Campaign manager Juan Rodriguez described the changes in an internal memo, which the campaign provided to The Chronicle. Politico was first to report the news.
The efforts to streamline the campaign come as Harris has fallen in polling in the Democratic contest and plateaued in fundraising. Her campaign spent more than it took in during the three months ending Sept. 30, the last time candidates were required to issue finance reports. She has raised more than $35 million, but spending has left with her just over $10.5 million in the bank.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in comparison, has raised $50 million with nearly $26 million still in the bank, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has raised more than $61 million with nearly $34 million left. Former Vice President Joe Biden had similar cash
flows as Harris, with nearly $38 million raised and $9 million left.
Harris’ campaign is presenting the changes as part of her overall strategy to invest heavily in Iowa. She pledged to visit the state at least once a week during October, and by Thursday will have spent a total of 15 days there this month. Harris will stick to that tactic next month, including over Thanksgiving, the campaign said.
In the memo, Rodriguez billed the moves as “an organizational realignment to go allin on Iowa.”
The campaign will cut its Baltimore headquarters staff, the memo said. Rodriguez also said he would take a pay cut, as would campaign consultants. Federal disclosures show he has been paid more than $10,000 per month.
Cost savings will go toward an ad campaign leading up to Iowa’s Feb. 3 caucuses that will top $1 million, Rodriguez added.
Staffers will be redeployed to Iowa from New Hampshire, which holds its primary the week after Iowa votes, and from earlyvoting state Nevada and California, which is part of the Super Tuesday primary March 3. The Harris campaign is keeping its current staffing in South Carolina, which holds its primary Feb. 29 and has a large African American population that Harris is hoping to win over.
“From the beginning of this campaign, Kamala Harris and this team set out with one goal — to win the nomination and defeat Donald Trump in 2020,” Rodriguez wrote in the memo. “This requires us to make difficult strategic decisions and make clear priorities, not threaten to drop out or deploy gimmicks.”
Rodriguez added that
“plenty of winning primary campaigns, like John Kerry’s in 2004 and John McCain’s in 2008, have had to make tough choices on their way to the nomination, and this is no different.”
Harris has been polling in the single digits and has fallen to fifth place in the race following a strong bump in early summer, which came after she took the lead in attacking Biden in the first Democratic presidential debate.
She still needs one more poll of either 4% nationally or 6% in an early voting state — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina — to qualify for the Democratic debate in December. She has already qualified for the next debate, Nov. 20 in Atlanta.