Democratic operatives, together with a few of Kamala Harris’ personal staffers, are rising more and more involved about her comparatively mild marketing campaign schedule, which has her holding fewer occasions than Donald Trump and avoiding unscripted interactions with voters and the press nearly solely.
In interviews with POLITICO, practically two dozen Democrats described Harris as operating a do-no-harm, risk-averse method to the race they concern may hamper her because the marketing campaign enters its last 30-day stretch.
With early voting by mail and in individual already underway in additional than half of the nation, Harris spent simply three days of the final week of September in battleground states. On Sept. 28, when Trump gave a speech in Wisconsin earlier than flying to Alabama for the Georgia-Alabama soccer sport, Harris was attending a fundraiser in San Francisco. And past considerations about her schedule, Democrats argue that Harris would profit from venues that permit her to introduce herself to voters in a extra genuine means, reminiscent of city corridor occasions, extra sit-down interviews and unscripted exchanges with voters.
“There’s a time at which you simply need to barnstorm these battlegrounds,” mentioned David Axelrod, the longtime Democratic operative who helped lead Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and was an early critic of President Joe Biden’s campaigning type. “These races are decathlons, and there are numerous occasions, and it’s important to do all of them as a result of individuals need to take a look at you.”
“It’s probably the most troublesome oral examination on the plan for probably the most troublesome job, and a part of that’s simply that spontaneous — city halls, all types of interviews, and never simply pleasant interviews. OTRs the place you work together in a substantive means with individuals, all of these issues are worthwhile,” he continued. “And I might be doing them if I had been her.”
The discussions contained in the occasion converse to the rising nervousness concerning the state of the race, as polls present Harris and Trump locked in a useless warmth throughout all seven battleground states — and with Democrats haunted by the echoes of Hillary Clinton’s play-it-safe 2016 marketing campaign.
“We all know this isn’t truly 2016 once more, and it’s not like she’s not going to Wisconsin,” mentioned a former Biden staffer, referring to Clinton’s notorious resolution to by no means journey to the state that she ultimately misplaced. “However we will nonetheless be taught from that. Trump is in all places once more, identical to he was then. Our facet must be, too.”
Democrats acknowledged Harris is performing higher than Biden and the thrill surrounding her candidacy has elevated the occasion’s money benefit. She’s additionally put the Solar Belt swing states again in play. However they’re additionally rising extra distressed {that a} marketing campaign insisting Harris is the “underdog” is operating like she’s defending a lead.
Whereas the plan is for Harris’ journey to ramp up in October, the vp has spent greater than a 3rd of days because the Democratic Nationwide Conference receiving briefings from employees and conducting inside conferences, or with none scheduled public occasions, in line with a POLITICO evaluation of her journey. That excludes days with recognized official facet enterprise, like her late September assembly with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the president of the United Arab Emirates, on the White Home, final week’s assembly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and briefings she obtained at FEMA’s headquarters in Washington earlier this week.
Of the remaining days, the vp spent just a bit greater than half of them holding rallies, policy-focused speeches, occasions with labor unions and different in-person, public-facing occasions, together with stops at small companies, in swing states. And he or she has spent practically half of her post-DNC days in Washington.
Evaluating Harris’ marketing campaign to different latest Democratic presidential nominees is troublesome, as Biden’s 2020 marketing campaign was affected by the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic. However an evaluation of Barack Obama’s first marketing campaign in 2008 and Clinton’s 2016 bid — based mostly on information from Eric Appleman’s Democracy in Motion websites — exhibits that Harris’ schedule extra intently displays the latter than the previous.
Trying on the identical time interval in these two elections, Obama had simply two days with no public occasions, and his schedule was packed day by day with an array of marketing campaign occasions, transient appearances at native eating places, fundraisers, and different occasions. Clinton, in contrast, had roughly the identical variety of days with no occasions that Harris has had, together with a quick stint the place she was handled for pneumonia.
“Extra is at all times useful, at all times higher as a result of they simply dominate the information cycle for just a few days,” mentioned Morgan Jackson, a North Carolina-based Democratic strategist. “Pay attention, when these late-breakers are deciding how they’re going to vote, those which are actually consequential in a good race — a visit in October is infinitely price a couple of in September due to these late-deciders.”
The angst amongst Harris’ allies acknowledges the challenges dealing with her workforce as they make selections about the simplest use of the vp’s time. She spent a number of days in early September prepping for her debate in opposition to Trump — a profitable efficiency that gave her marketing campaign new momentum. And among the official-side occasions, which might get pleasure from burnishing her presidential bonafides, come at the price of pulling her off the path.
“We’re within the sport, and we’re aggressive as a result of Joe Biden stepped down and Kamala Harris crammed the void. And he or she met the second,” mentioned one Democratic operative granted anonymity to talk candidly concerning the marketing campaign. “That is nonetheless the Biden marketing campaign infrastructure. That was anemic,” they continued. “Making a choice takes eternally.”
Her marketing campaign is making an attempt to make its presence felt even when she isn’t there. The marketing campaign trolled Trump whereas he attended the Georgia-Alabama sport that night time, operating an advert throughout the nationwide TV broadcast specializing in the GOP nominee’s refusal to decide to a second debate. A second debate, the vp’s high aides consider, would supply one other alternative to mitigate what could also be her greatest political legal responsibility: that a lot of the voters nonetheless doesn’t know a lot about her.
The marketing campaign’s consciousness that voters nonetheless have to see extra of Harris makes the vp’s latest schedule all of the extra perplexing.
Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, who was one of many first Democrats to name for Biden to step apart, warned that the race stays “frighteningly shut,” even with a brand new candidate. Moulton, who campaigned for the vp in North Carolina this week, mentioned Harris must be on the bottom with voters, providing extra specifics about her coverage plans — and the way they differ from the president’s — on the financial system and immigration if she needs to win over key voting blocs.
“This was a criticism concerning the Biden marketing campaign,” Moulton mentioned, when requested if he was involved about Harris’ schedule. “So it’s not a brand new factor that we have to get on the market as Democrats and meet extra People on the bottom.”
Of the times left, Democrats had clear recommendation for the place Harris ought to spend her time. “Don’t go to Georgia another time,” one Democratic operative mentioned. “You gotta get to Michigan. You must dwell in Pennsylvania [because] the problem continues to be Black voters in Philadelphia, Black voters in Detroit.”
Harris aides are planning an aggressive last stretch, with elevated journey and a packed media schedule over the subsequent 30 days — and so they perceive the magnitude of the work forward. The marketing campaign seems to be adjusting its method to deploying Harris’ operating mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as effectively. After his debate on Tuesday that confirmed him nervous out of the gate, Walz is swinging throughout the nation and plans to take part in additional media interviews, each with nationwide and battleground state shops, in addition to outreach to specialty audiences with sports activities content material creators and podcasts.
Aides preserve Harris has a busy journey schedule, with various her rallies producing a deluge of earned media. Final week, she delivered an economics speech in jap Pennsylvania, gave remarks after a go to to the U.S.-Mexico border, attended fundraisers over the weekend and completed it out with a Las Vegas rally. However as Hurricane Helene devastated elements of the South, Harris needed to go away Nevada early to return to Washington to attend briefings, although she nonetheless joined the “All of the Smoke” podcast. She visited Georgia to survey hurricane injury on Wednesday, and campaigned in Wisconsin and Michigan this week. She’ll return to Nevada subsequent Thursday for a Univision city corridor.
And aides notice that Harris does work together with the media, taking part in 95 interviews this yr, in line with the marketing campaign. On most journeys Harris takes, she typically visits with the press pool seated in the back of her airplane, however talking solely off the document. The vp has prioritized podcasts with content material creators and centered on Black and Latino media, whilst she does some conventional press. Along with taking part in two native interviews on Tuesday, Harris joined Alex Cooper on “Name Her Daddy” — a well-liked podcast that has hundreds of thousands of listeners, principally girls — for a dialog on abortion rights that may air subsequent week.
Harris aides say that this technique is a response to a fragmented media market, in addition to an effort to succeed in voters throughout various channels. Along with aggressive outreach on the bottom, the marketing campaign makes use of platforms like Tiktok, the place marketing campaign movies have generated greater than a billion views, and the place content material creators have used their platforms to share her message. The marketing campaign has additionally invested closely in paid media, directed towards digital and different platforms for voters who don’t devour information media — like Hispanic radio, Twitch, its latest well being care advert blitz and TV buys designed to seize particular audiences, together with the NFL, School Soccer, MLB World Sequence, actuality tv, the American Music Awards.
“It’s not nearly packing her schedule with public occasions — it’s about making environment friendly use of each second to ensure undecided voters see her with the ability to lead, assembly voters the place they’re throughout media, and fundraising strategically,” mentioned Jim Messina, who ran Obama’s 2012 reelection marketing campaign. “She’s utilizing good, fashionable methods — like ensuring she’s speaking to media to have most influence with key demographics, investing closely in diversified paid media, and organizing — to ensure voters know sufficient about her to really feel assured she’s able to be president.”
Harris marketing campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz mentioned the marketing campaign is bringing “voters from throughout the political spectrum that need to flip the web page on Trump’s chaos and division,” whereas electing a frontrunner specializing in uniting the nation and strengthening the center class.
“Our process for the ultimate stretch of this marketing campaign is guaranteeing that successful imaginative and prescient reaches the undecided voters who will resolve this election in locations and methods that may truly attain them,” he mentioned. “That will look completely different in at this time’s evolving media surroundings than prior campaigns, however coupled with marketing campaign occasions, aggressive organizing, and a historic paid media marketing campaign, it’s a successful method.”
Of the fundraisers, particularly, some Democrats argued they had been essential for the marketing campaign to ship Harris out for high-dollar occasions as a result of they had been nonetheless recovering from Biden’s anemic fundraising, “which damage Democratic fundraising all cycle,” mentioned a battleground state strategist.
“Frankly, not one of the individuals she wants to succeed in proper now are essentially going to get it from her going to some retail, small-business cease,” the strategist continued. “As a substitute, she’s speaking [with paid ads] in a means that Trump and his allies will not be matching.”
Harris had blockbuster success — and drew fawning media protection — when she held a collection of enormous rallies throughout her first weeks on the high of the ticket, however the tempo of these massive occasions has additionally slowed. And far was made about how lengthy it took Harris to lastly do her first sitdown interview after her speedy ascension to the highest of the ticket.
Whereas she has begun to do extra interviews — and has a significant one scheduled with “60 Minutes” within the coming days — Democrats nonetheless really feel like she may additional enhance her visibility. That additionally utilized for Walz, who partly received the operating mate slot due to his power doing high-profile interviews — however he has largely stopped doing them since becoming a member of a marketing campaign run by a workforce decided to reduce danger.
Some Democrats felt that Walz’s rustiness confirmed in Tuesday’s debate, although the Minnesota governor has been open about being a weak debater. Whereas he rallied because the night time went on, he began off nervous and halting and in contrast poorly to the graceful supply of Vance, who routinely takes questions from reporters and had sharpened his responses.
“Walz is sweet at this however, like anybody, he wants follow,” mentioned one Democrat who helps run a battleground state congressional race. “Let him be charming, let him be ‘Coach,’ let him remind voters why she picked him within the first place.”
Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.
