It’s been over 20 days since Harris jumped into the race and there are some reports about her team.
Recently, Politico did an in-depth report that the campaign is embroiled in a bit of a power struggle, with factions clashing over control and influence. According to Politico, this internal friction isn’t just a small hiccup—it’s causing some significant anxiety and raw emotions among the staff, echoing some of the dysfunction that’s been seen in Harris’s previous offices.
It seems that the main source of tension comes from two groups within the campaign: former Biden staffers and new Harris aides. These two camps don’t exactly see eye to eye on how to rework the campaign’s strategy to ensure that former President Donald Trump doesn’t make a political comeback. This has created a bit of a rift, and the arrival of former Obama staffers, including David Plouffe, hasn’t exactly smoothed things over. Plouffe’s presence, alongside other seasoned veterans, has reportedly clashed with the approach of Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Harris campaign chair and former Biden official.
Even O’Malley Dillon admitted there’s some work to be done. She acknowledged that when you have a large team and a change in leadership at the top, it’s going to take some time to get everyone on the same page. But time isn’t exactly on their side as they race towards the November election.
“There is no doubt when you have 2,000 people and you are changing who is at the top of the ticket that it’s going to take a minute to make sure that everyone is seated well, and we still have some work to do on that,” O’Malley Dillon said.
What’s interesting is that this isn’t the first time Harris has faced such challenges. The campaign’s current turmoil mirrors issues from her Senate and vice-presidential offices. Back then, similar internal tensions led to staff departures and organizational chaos. The fear among some aides is that history might be repeating itself, and that the current unrest could lead to bigger problems down the line.
One particularly telling incident that’s been leaked involves a disagreement over the level of diversity in a campaign video. The argument got so heated that the project was reportedly handed over to the Democratic National Committee to finish.
Another troubling report involves TJ Ducklo, a former Biden spokesperson who’s now with the Harris campaign. It’s been suggested that Ducklo has been bad-mouthing Harris behind the scenes, though the campaign has denied these claims. Ducklo, you might recall, resigned from the Biden administration in 2021 after a scandal involving a female reporter.
In response to the Politico report, senior adviser and chief of staff to Harris Shelia Nix blamed Trump:
“This is a team that within a few short weeks has changed candidates, added a running mate, seen hundreds of millions of dollars pour in fueled by a historic outpouring of support from millions of voters, and crisscrossed the country talking to voters — all while the other guy has grown increasingly unhinged and dangerous from his perch on Mar-a-Lago,” Nix said. “The story here is what we’ve been able to do in a remarkably short amount of time to build a winning campaign — full stop.”
