The Harris campaign spiraled into a power struggle in recent weeks with factions competing for influence and control, six people, including aides familiar with the dynamics, told Politico’s Christopher Cadelago on Monday.
The report described the campaign as rife with “friction,” “internal tensions,” “anxiety,” “raw emotions,” “bad-mouthing,” and “grumbling” that mirror the dysfunction that plagued Harris’s Senate and vice presidential offices.
The competing factions reportedly consist of former Biden staffers and new Harris aides, who do not agree on how to overhaul the campaign’s power structure to prevent former President Donald Trump from completing the greatest political comeback in American political history.
In recent weeks, the campaign hired several former Obama staffers to help run it. But those staffers — including David Plouffe, Obama’s former campaign manager — are not jibing with Jen O’Malley Dillon, the former Biden White House official and Harris campaign chair, Politico reported.
“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 admitted to Cadelago.
The power struggle within Harris’s 2024 campaign is similar to the turmoil within her senate and vice presidential offices, Politico’s Cadelago reported:
Anxiety inside the campaign could still dissipate over the three-month sprint to November, but aides also fear they could grow in scope and significance and lead to trouble down the chain of command. Harris built a chaotic operation in her 2020 presidential primary campaign that she allowed to fester, causing bottlenecks and radiating dysfunction across her organization. In the first two years of her vice presidency, she also saw several staff departures and internal fissures that reinforced the idea she couldn’t properly assemble and lead a harmonious team. But Harris and her staff have worked hard to overcome all the old dramas and the curtailed 2024 campaign is the latest test of whether she could keep it up.
A handful of people in Harris’ circle told POLITICO they worry that the unfolding tension among campaign staffers will splash back on the vice president, and argue that it’s unfortunate and unfair given the strides she’s made in recent years to build a cohesive and loyal unit.
But some Harris loyalists have picked up on former Biden aides grumbling under their breath about now having to work for her. And there’s considerable ire directed at top digital strategist Rob Flaherty, whose title includes deputy campaign manager.
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