When Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign, the same progressive lawmakers and groups — who had just spent weeks defending the president — quickly got in line behind Democrats’ next likely nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
It’s a political strategy based on loyalty that some progressives say will pay dividends if a future President Harris is looking around in a fraught situation, wondering who she can rely on.
“Who had his back as he made his decision?” one veteran organizer on progressive campaigns said of Biden. “It was the No Labels people who were out with force,” the organizer added, referring to moderate Democrats, many of whom were the loudest voices publicly calling for Biden to withdraw.
The next Democratic president should remember this moment, progressives told NOTUS Monday.
“When you’re in leadership, you want to know who has your back and who will throw you under the bus,” the organizer said. “Harris knows who she can trust.”
In public statements backing Harris, progressive leaders have emphasized the working relationship they’ve had with the Biden administration and said they want more with Harris.
“She has been a partner to President Biden in pushing the Biden-Harris Administration’s achievements,” wrote House Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal in her endorsement of Harris, “and she has embraced the Biden-Harris 100-day agenda that will energize the country toward a
vision of what we must and will implement when we keep the White House and Senate and take back the House.”
Progressives in Washington for the most part feel good about the left’s working relationship with Biden, despite sometimes painful breaks over issues like U.S. policy toward Israel. And on the campaign trail recently, they have been excited about Biden’s recent promises to cap some rent hikes, lessen the impact of some medical debt and address other progressive priorities. In statements, progressives urged Harris to keep up the good work if she gets the nomination.
“This acknowledgment of our progressive platform shows the President’s dedication to listening to our members and we fully expect the top of the ticket to continue embracing these policies,” wrote Joseph Geervarghese, the executive director of Our Revolution, the organizing group formed from remnants of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign, in a message praising Biden for stepping away from the 2024 race. “As we look ahead, we expect the next nominee, likely Vice President Kamala Harris, to adopt and champion a progressive platform that delivers for working families and rebuilds trust in government and the Democratic Party.”
Harris hasn’t officially clinched the nomination, though the vice president has buttoned up support quickly, alleviating fears of a divisive multicandidate struggle over the coming weeks.
Unity appears to be coming quickly to a party that hasn’t experienced it much lately, and people NOTUS spoke to didn’t want to upset that with public grousing about ongoing friction between moderates and progressives in the party.
But that friction has been part of conversations with progressives since the movement to oust Biden first began. Some on the left were annoyed by statements by some moderates that seemed to downplay the dangers of a second term of former President Donald Trump. Others saw some members out for themselves in the scramble to condemn Biden, while the left tried to keep the focus on Trump despite their own private fears about Biden staying in the race. And some said they were bothered by moderates suddenly calling Biden a danger to Democrats’ chances, something they had been doing since the war in Gaza began.
Harris, like Biden, was never particularly energizing to the professional left. When she ran for president in 2020, she was attacked from the left over her past as a prosecutor. But after years of working well with Biden, progressive operatives told NOTUS they’re setting their expectations for Harris high and hoping she notices.
“I — a former Bernie 2020 staffer — am sufficiently coconut-pilled!” texted one veteran organizer working to defeat Trump.
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Evan McMorris-Santoro is a reporter at NOTUS.