Vice President Kamala Harris told top advisers that she wants the transition from the Biden campaign to the Harris campaign to be “quiet” and “without infighting” that marred her first run for president.
While that’s largely been the case in the campaign’s first weeks, as leaks have (so far) been kept to a relative minimum, the transition itself hasn’t been without power struggles, according to multiple people close to the campaign. Some of the struggles are focused on policy, while others have been on strategy.
Most of the dozen people NOTUS spoke with likened it to the usual back-and-forth expected when one campaign transforms into another. Or the expected debates that arise from the fast-paced blending of families learning to operate in the same way.
“[Harris] said she wanted no infighting. She was clearly going to bring her people in,” said a source close to the now-Harris campaign. “But for the first time, the ‘A’ team has to work for her now. It’s Kamala Harris’ party.”
The vice president’s sister, Maya Harris, has leaned more into helping the campaign informally, three people familiar with her actions tell NOTUS. She will not obtain an operational role and does not interface with campaign staff, one person said, a major departure from her 2019 role as her sister’s campaign chairperson. Now, she’s focused on smaller-scale outreach, like soliciting advice from allies, making thank-you calls on behalf of her sister and acting as a liaison for Harris’ political network in California. And her biggest role of all is being a “personal confidante” to her sister.
“I think the notion that she hasn’t been an important voice in this is ridiculous,” said one person close to both sisters. “The point is, what is her voice on? If it’s ‘what’s best for Kamala,’ I would hope so. Family is family.”
Maya Harris, who has made on-and-off trips to Washington since Harris replaced Biden on the ticket, has acted as a sounding board, a factor of her and her sister’s close relationship. And she will likely be a surrogate for the vice president during the convention and following finance events. Maya has been known to host Harris’ allies during her sister’s time as vice president.
“It’s fair to say Maya is the other part of the brain, so she brings something that few people have — the long history,” said the source close to the campaign.
Maya Harris’ husband, Tony West, has emerged as a power center in Harris’ new order. Harris’ brother-in-law, who helped rally support for her the day President Joe Biden left the ticket, has also been involved in Harris’ runs for office since the early 2000s, even as he rose through the ranks in the U.S. government and then at tech companies like Uber. West has been critical, people close to the vice president said, in helping make decisions ranging from personnel and interfacing with staff to fortifying relationships with donors and other allies.
The new order at the Harris campaign has brought “unease” to some of the former Biden aides, multiple people familiar with the dynamic told NOTUS, and has added a layer of informal approval for others.
The domestic policy shop has been an early home for campaign power struggles as Harris begins to solidify both her team and her own policy platform. The vice president handpicked Brian Nelson, a longtime aide who has remained a part of the government in the Treasury Department, to help lead her new agenda. Nelson is a well-liked aide who has been with Harris since her California attorney general days, and people who spoke to NOTUS said his appointment was a logical conclusion.
“She was always going to need to bring in people that knew her that could move quickly, that she didn’t have to explain herself to, particularly in the areas of politics and policy,” said one person close to Harris, who identified Nelson as that type of person.
The addition of Nelson — not to mention other economic leads like Deanne Millison, Gene Sperling and Brian Deese — has altered the world for Biden loyalists like Grace Landrieu, who had been the Biden campaign’s policy director, two sources told NOTUS. Landrieu, they say, has expressed unease with the new order that’s changed her standing.
“She is telling people that ‘it’s all fine, everybody’s getting along,’” said one person who is aware of the conversations. But with the additions of Nelson, Deese and other longtime policy aides who have a direct relationship with Harris, “the room is getting crowded. So she’s trying to find her way in this new world.”
As the campaign’s domestic policy positions are being hammered out ahead of the September debate, with an economic-focused speech planned for Friday, the struggle has been more apparent.
“What you’re seeing is, how does [staff] translate with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket?” said one Harris aide, who downplayed any tensions.
Another flash point moment was during an early new seniors meeting, which now included Harris’ top campaign aides, in Wilmington for a retreat on the next steps forward the day after Biden dropped out. Megan Jones, Harris’ official political adviser, moved over to the campaign side and wanted the vice president to quickly launch a battleground tour that week to rally voters and show strength in her consolidation of the party. Other Harris aides agreed that travel was necessary. But former Biden aides, including campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, disagreed, maintaining that Harris needed to stay in D.C. to work on coalescing support, preparing for the potential debate and finding a VP.
It revealed a heightened difference of opinion, three people told NOTUS, between the two factions that, for some, crystallized the messy nature of the marriage of necessity the groups have entered into.
“It was a discussion in a regular old scheduling meeting that now a new blended family had together,” one person involved in the meeting said. Anything that happened inside of it, “it’s part of a natural transition,” they said.
Ultimately, the campaign agreed on travel for an Atlanta rally about a week after Biden’s exit with rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Quavo, which then led to the larger battleground tour with Harris’ newly named running mate, Gov. Tim Walz.
When asked for comment, Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said the reporting for this story is “false,” without specifying further.
Allies have also questioned how the new high-profile Obama-era advisers like David Plouffe, brought on by Harris, will function within the existing team. There have been open questions about who Plouffe really reports to (the campaign has repeatedly said that he reports to O’Malley Dillon, like the rest of the new flock).
“Jen is leading this campaign and is leading it expertly,” Plouffe said in a statement. “All of us who report to her consider ourselves fortunate to support an accomplished, whip smart and dynamic manager.”
Harris herself has gotten more involved with the campaign’s budget, one person told NOTUS, looking to know more about where the hundreds of millions of dollars raised over the last few weeks is going.
But O’Malley Dillon still maintains control over the budget and day-to-day operations. And multiple people told NOTUS that there has been a change in the way that O’Malley Dillon has approached her same old role, looking to be more collegial and amenable to the Harris imports.
“There is certainly a tonal shift from the way she’s approaching her job, recognizing that she cannot, completely, with this new world order, be as top-down and heavy because they’re new players,” one person said. “She’s got to check in with Tony, right. Check in with Plouffe. But despite all of that, Kamala Harris is clear that Jen O’Malley is [leading] the day-to-day operations of this campaign.”
And while O’Malley Dillon has admitted to other staff that she knows Harris less well than her dedicated staffers, she is enjoying a warmer relationship with the Democratic nominee, speaking to Harris on a “much more frequent basis,” one person said, on calls that go both ways.
An additional person familiar with the dynamics pushed back on any issues with the relationship between O’Malley Dillon and Harris, saying it’s “long standing” and the pair speak every day.
Other aides have also risen in prominence, like Harris’ official chief of staff, Lorraine Voles, and her campaign chief of staff, Sheila Nix, who have helped her craft her messages for big moments, like for last week’s Walz rollout. Brian Fallon has also moved into more of a leadership role in campaign-wide communications.
As the days speed past in this already fast-moving campaign cycle, it’s likely that harder moments are ahead of the Harris campaign — when the sugar high and swell of enthusiasm shift into the anxious days leading into actual voting. Many hope that the growing pains among staff don’t get out of control before November.
“There’s going to be differences in opinions,” said a Harris aide. “And in some instances, someone will lead and someone will follow. But the point is that the healthy discourse needs to happen regardless.”
—
Jasmine Wright is a reporter at NOTUS.