Kamala Harris's campaign is facing an internal revolt over disastrous management that's taken her out of the top tier of contenders

Eliza RelmanNov 30, 2019, 00:48 IST

Sen. Kamala Harris' presidential campaign is in free-fall.
She's polling at about 4% nationally and failing to raise the necessary funds to keep her campaign healthy.
Harris' campaign aides are reportedly divided and in constant competition, in part because Harris maintains two campaign headquarters, according to a lengthy New York Times report.
The campaign hasn't been able to afford TV ads or polling for almost two months while drastically cutting back on Facebooks ads, The Times reported.
Rep. Marcia Fudge, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus who has endorsed Harris and regularly advises her, publicly pushed Harris to fire one of her campaign managers.
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Sen. Kamala Harris' presidential campaign is in free-fall.

While the California lawmaker began her campaign last January with significant press hype and large, enthusiastic crowds, she's now polling at about 4% nationally and failing to raise the necessary funds to keep her campaign healthy.

In a scathing resignation letter earlier this month, Kelly Mehlenbacher, the campaign's former state operations director, accused Harris' top deputies of gross incompetence and not having "a real plan to win" following layoffs.

"This is my third presidential campaign and I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly," Mehlenbacher wrote in her letter, which was published by The New York Times in a lengthy report on her campaign.

Harris' campaign aides are reportedly divided and in constant competition, in part because Harris maintains two campaign headquarters - one in San Francisco and one in Baltimore. And two top aides, Harris's sister Maya Harris, and political strategist Juan Rodriguez, simultaneously lead the operation.

Campaign aides say the candidate has struggled to settle on a message, instead moving from one poll-tested catch-phrase to another. And while progressives have regularly attacked Harris on Twitter over her positions on key issues like healthcare and her record as a prosecutor, she hasn't successfully asserted herself as a moderate alternative.

Rep. Marcia Fudge, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus who has endorsed Harris and regularly advises her, publicly pushed Harris to fire Rodriguez.

"I have told her there needs to be a change," Fudge told The Times. "The weakness is at the top. And it's clearly Juan. He needs to take responsibility - that's where the buck stops."

Rodriguez defended the campaign and its decision to lay off staffers earlier this month.

"Our team, from the candidate to organizers across the country, are working day in and out to make sure Kamala is the nominee to take on Donald Trump and end the national nightmare that is his presidency," he said in a statement to The Times. "Just like every campaign, we have made tough decisions to have the resources we need to place in Iowa and springboard into the rest of the primary calendar."

Harris raised just $11.6 million in the third quarter of this year - less than half of what some of her rivals raised in the same period. The campaign hasn't been able to afford TV ads or polling for almost two months while drastically cutting back on Facebooks ads, The Times reported.

Former Harris aides are expressing concern and criticism of the campaign. Gil Duran, an opinion editor at the Sacramento Bee who used to advise Harris in California, suggested Harris' campaign issues indicate she's not prepared to be president.

"You can't run the country if you can't run your campaign," he told The Times.

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Kamala Harris's campaign is facing an internal revolt over disastrous management that's taken her out of the top tier of contenders