Quickly flush with cash, flooded with volunteers and greeted by jubilant crowds, Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly formed campaign has now taken a big step toward helping manage it all by bringing in some of the biggest names in Democratic politics.
A flurry of high-profile hires announced Friday — including David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama’s first run for the White House, and veteran Democratic operatives Stephanie Cutter and Jennifer Palmieri — comes as Harris’ campaign runs to move away from Joe Biden’s operation and make a crazy run into November.
“That is, let’s take down Trump once and for all,” said one person with deep knowledge of the process surrounding Harris. This person, like others in this story, requested anonymity to speak candidly.
With less than 100 days until the election, Harris’ advisers must face a series of important moments and decisions that would normally span months. That level of intensity in a short period of time required a team of experienced professionals, multiple sources with knowledge of Harris’ strategy said.
“Today, accept a nomination. This weekend, choose a vice president. Next week, a big campaign shift, then the convention, then the debate,” said a person with knowledge of Harris’ strategy.
Some of the high-level staff hires are intended to focus on messaging, research and paid media, which had been run by longtime Biden operatives Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti.
Obama recommended to Harris that she hire Plouffe, according to one of the sources, who will serve as a senior adviser on strategy. Cutter will be a senior consultant on messaging and strategy. Mitch Stewart will serve as senior advisor on swing states and Palmieri will serve as senior advisor to the second gentleman.
The core operations around states work, communications and the advance team will remain largely the same, while Harris’ communications staff – such as senior advisor Brian Fallon – will be elevated and there will be extra help at all levels. This extra assistance will include advance staff, as the campaign is holding much more robust events in larger venues and hosting many more of them. Harris also hired a new speechwriter, overseeing the consistency of the message.
“This is the A team,” said longtime Democratic strategist Pete Giangreco. “That means the vice president is in it to win. This speaks well of the type of president she would be. She is surrounded by top-notch campaign talent… These are people who are winners and who have served at the highest levels of politics and government.”
With the messaging, Harris and her team have already focused on projecting their own voice, shifting to talking about the future and spending less time trying to tout Biden’s record.
She has already adopted a different tone than Biden, both on the stump and in ads. Although Biden framed November as a fight for democracy, Harris is already talking about it in terms of freedom. Several of Harris’ aides see him as having the same messaging pillars, but with a different messenger.
She is focusing on issues that Biden did not, according to a person close to Harris, including that children should not live in poverty and that there should be economic opportunities to get ahead, not just survive. Two people close to Harris’ strategy said the vice president is also focusing more on “freedom” rather than “democracy.” Freedom is intended to encompass a spectrum of issues: safety, reproductive rights, voting, and living life.
When it comes to talking about Trump, the message will focus, in part, not just on the idea that the country cannot go back, but that a second Trump term would be much worse than the first, according to a of people.
Harris will also focus on some of her initiatives, such as affordable housing, but the source added that a potential first debate between Harris and Trump would be a natural time to make sharper distinctions about where she differs from Biden.
“The debate is where we should think: Do they have different views on what they would do in the next four years?” said the second person close to the strategy.
Cutter, someone who has earned Harris’ trust, has been quietly working with the vice president for months on strategy. Going forward, she will play a strategic role ensuring there is coordination between the Democratic National Committee, the campaign, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the convention and the White House.
Jen O’Malley Dillon will still run the campaign. And campaign manager Julie Rodriguez will focus, in part, on Arizona and Nevada, specifically on Latino voters.
There was no difficulty in attracting veterans to the campaign. Instead, they looked at the moment and asked, “How can I help?” said a source.
Another noted that with so much enthusiasm surrounding the campaign – and the knowledge that any commitment would mean three months rather than a two-year slog – a bunch of agents who wanted to come on board were turned away.
All staff additions and major decision-making occur against a backdrop of explosive enthusiasm on the ground, in fundraising and a general increase in polling. Some of the numbers are surprising, including the fact that in one week, 360,000 people signed up to volunteer for Harris, according to the campaign.
In Wisconsin, 3,500 new volunteers signed up within a week and crowds of people began visiting local offices – 10 times the normal number – asking for yard signs.
“In Wisconsin, we have had more volunteer sign-ups online since July 21 than we did between January 1 and July 20,” said a Harris campaign aide.
Some signs are already up in places like Philadelphia that simply say “Harris for President.”
In Nevada, which Democrats have all but written off due to Trump’s large lead, the party has seen some positive signs, including more than 1,200 new volunteers in the first week of Harris’ campaign and a sudden spike in polls.
“This is a game changer for a land game in a small state like Nevada,” said Nevada Democratic strategist Molly Forgey. Forgey said that with Harris, there is new hope that Democrats can make inroads at the top of the ticket in the swing state.
“As a diverse, Western-native and Nevada-savvy candidate, she is uniquely suited to perform well here,” she said.
Harris also enters the race with a fundraising advantage. The torrent of money – a record $310 million reported on Friday — comes from donors big and small at a pace that likely means she won’t have to spend as much time fundraising and more time on the campaign.
Chris Korge, a veteran Democratic fundraiser who remains Harris’ campaign finance chairman, said he has never seen the pace of fundraising they are experiencing now.
“We are raising, in a short period of time,” he said, “an amount of money that is unprecedented in the history of American politics.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
