President Joe Biden insists he will remain in the race and Vice President Kamala Harris is by his side. But that hasn’t stopped the first hints of a parallel pro-Harris campaign from taking shape – with or without his approval – as Democrats debate the future of his presidential bid.
A handful of alumni from Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaigns have come together to form United by HarrisSo far the first public effort to promote a potential Harris 2024 presidential campaign, news of which was first shared with NBC News.
Organizers compare effort Ready for Hillarythe group formed months before the former secretary of state officially entered the 2016 contest, which recruited volunteers who pledged their support while waiting for the formal campaign to begin.
“We just want to get the word out that there are people who want to rally behind the vice president if Joe Biden steps aside,” he said. Matthew Ortega, a Democratic digital strategist who served as digital communications director for the Clinton campaign. “The idea is to give some people who want Harris to be at the top of the list a focal point.”
Ortega said the group’s goals are relatively modest: to give Harris supporters “a practical thing to do” as they wait for the succession crisis to unfold. And promote Harris’ potential candidacy with what they hope will be a strong show of support for the vice president.
Ortega said the group does not plan to retain the data it collects or keep it in any form beyond this unique moment.
The effort was not authorized by Harris or her team, who assiduously avoided doing anything that could be interpreted as disloyal to Biden.
Harris’ spokesperson declined to comment.
This comes as Democrats are beginning to split into three camps: those who want to stick with Biden, those who want to replace him with Harris, and a third group who want an open nomination process where multiple candidates can compete on the Democratic National next month. Convention in Chicago.
The pro-Harris camp argues that she represents enough change to re-energize Democratic voters and restart the presidential race, while maintaining enough Biden continuity to avoid the potential divisiveness of the revamped presidential primaries.
“Having worked on the 2016 primaries and seeing the 2020 primaries, I think reducing this process to a few days creates room for chaos,” Ortega said. “And effectively, Harris has already been voted in by primary voters, so she has democratic legitimacy.”
Harris supporters say Democrats can still get some of the excitement of an open convention through the race for the vice presidential spot, which would need to be filled if Biden steps aside and Harris replaces him at the top of the ticket.
With polls showing Biden currently trailing former President Donald Trump, Harris’ supporters say it’s better to bet on her than stick with a candidate they see as doomed.
“It’s a risk, it’s unprecedented,” argues United for Harris in its website. “But we’re down with just seconds left in the third quarter and we know Kamala Harris will make us proud.”
Harris struggled during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, which she entered with momentum and money, before disappointingly failing.
She had particular problems with progressives that year, and now, some of Biden’s most vocal supporters come from the left, including figures like Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-CortezDN.Y.
But other progressives have reevaluated Harris, and the nascent pseudo-campaign in her name received a big boost Saturday from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a progressive who ran against Biden and Harris in the 2020 Democratic primary.
“What gives me a lot of hope right now is that if President Biden decides to back down, we will have Vice President Kamala Harris, who is ready to unite the party, take on Donald Trump and win,” she said. in an interview on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.”
“I’ve known Kamala for almost 15 years, when I was creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Kamala was California’s attorney general,” Warren added. “We worked side by side to try to fight against giant banks that were scamming people. Kamala led the charge to fight Republicans who want a nationwide abortion ban.”
Democratic Party rules make it virtually impossible to replace Biden unless he steps aside. And the party is still on track to formally nominate him in a virtual roll call vote during the first week of August. His campaign says he will be back on the stump from next week, after recovering from Covid.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
