Kamala Harris Will Cut Staff and Limit Pay as Campaign Falters
Kamala Harris Will Cut Staff, Limit Pay as Campaign Falters
(Bloomberg) -- Kamala Harris plans to cut staff and restructure her presidential effort as her once-ascendant campaign fails to catch on with Democratic voters and she remains locked out of the top tier of candidates.
The decision is Harris’s second course correction, coming six weeks after her campaign said she would place a premium on Iowa and campaign heavily there.
Campaign manager Juan Rodriguez outlined the restructuring in a memo, citing an “incredibly competitive resources environment” and a need to reduce spending to maximize prospects in Iowa. He said he would “take a pay cut along with all consultants.”
The changes include cutting staff at her Baltimore headquarters and redeploying field staff from key early states of New Hampshire, Nevada and her home state of California to Iowa, in the hope of launching a seven-figure ad campaign in the run-up to Iowa’s first-in-the-nation nominating contest.
Her operation in South Carolina, another important early state, won’t change, the memo said.
The memo was provided by the campaign and first reported by Politico.
Harris called into an all-staff meeting Wednesday afternoon to announce the changes, according to a staffer on the call. She said she was sad to let people go, adding that the campaign has a path forward but needed adjustments, the staffer said.
Harris has taken a nosedive in national surveys of Democrats, falling to a distant fifth place behind Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. She enjoyed a brief spike in the polls after confronting Biden in the first debate in late June, rising as high as second in some surveys, but has gradually slipped as she struggles to define herself in a crowded field.
Harris currently averages around 5% in national surveys. As one of two black major candidates in the race, Harris was expected to perform better with black voters, a large and influential constituency that has consistently favored Biden, who served as vice president to Barack Obama.
Harris has also failed to define herself ideologically for Democrats, who wonder whether she is a progressive, a moderate, a revolutionary or an incrementalist. She has sought to walk the line between the party’s insurgent left and its more cautious establishment.
Harris also has a cash problem. In the third quarter, her spending surged to $14.6 million, more than the $11.8 million she raised. Investments in infrastructure and expensive media buys ate into her cash reserves. Campaigns typically bolster spending as the pre-primary year wears on, but they do so while stockpiling cash for the condensed primary season ahead.
Harris may be strapped for money but she’s not alone. The Californian reported more cash on hand, with $10.5 million, than Biden’s $9 million at the end of September.
Rodriquez compared the move to successful presidential campaigns in the past that had to change course midstream due to unexpected problems.
Rodriguez said a victory will require “strategic decisions and make clear priorities, not threaten to drop out or deploy gimmicks. 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.”
--With assistance from Bill Allison and Tyler Pager.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sahil Kapur in Washington at skapur39@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, John Harney
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.