Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris restructures campaign, slashes staff
to focus on Iowa
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[October 31, 2019]
By Amanda Becker
(Reuters) - Democratic presidential
candidate Kamala Harris is trimming staff and restructuring her
struggling 2020 campaign to focus more on a make-or-break effort in the
first nominating contest in Iowa, according to a campaign memo seen by
Reuters.
Harris, who has slipped in opinion polls over the last three months,
will be "all-in on Iowa" and redeploy field staff from New Hampshire,
Nevada and California there, the memo said.
The U.S. senator from California also will cut staff at the campaign's
Baltimore headquarters, renegotiate contracts and reduce the salaries of
her campaign manager and all consultants, according to the memo, which
was first reported by Politico.
Harris has fallen into the middle of the crowded pack of candidates
seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican President
Donald Trump in the November 2020 election, losing support since
mid-summer and lagging behind top rivals in fundraising.
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A Real Clear Politics average of national polls shows her dropping from
15% support in mid-July, good for second place behind Joe Biden, to
about 5% now, putting her in fifth place among 18 Democratic candidates.
In the race for campaign cash, Harris has brought in about $36 million
since launching her bid earlier this year, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics. That is well behind leaders and fellow senators
Bernie Sanders, who has raised nearly $74 million, and Elizabeth Warren,
at $60 million.
Harris campaign manager Juan Rodriguez said in the memo the
restructuring would bolster investments in Iowa, where Harris will spend
the Thanksgiving holiday campaigning. Iowa hosts the first nominating
contest on Feb. 3.
"These decisions are difficult but will ensure the campaign is
positioned to execute a robust Iowa ground game and a minimum 7-figure
paid media campaign in the weeks leading up to the caucus," Rodriguez
said.
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![](../images/103119pics/news_y51.jpg)
Senator Kamala Harris speaks during the fourth U.S. Democratic
presidential candidates 2020 election debate in Westerville, Ohio,
U.S., October 15, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
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The campaign's presence in South Carolina, which hosts the fourth
nominating contest and which Harris has made central to her
strategy, will not be affected, the memo said.
"In a field of 18 candidates, we face an incredibly competitive
resource environment," he wrote. "To effectively compete with the
top campaigns and make the necessary investments in the critical
final 100 days to the caucus, we need to reduce expenditures
elsewhere and realign resources."
Rodriguez noted that successful campaigns in the past have undergone
similar reorganizations before capturing their party's nomination,
citing Democrat John Kerry in 2004 and Republican John McCain in
2008.
Rodriguez noted in the memo that Harris finished the last quarter
with the fourth most cash on hand, ahead of some candidates who lead
her in opinion polls.
In a separate email to reporters on Wednesday, released hours before
the restructuring memo became public, the Harris campaign said her
focus on Iowa during the month of October, when she spent 15 days in
the state, had resulted in an "organizing edge" in the state heading
into November.
A Real Clear Politics average of Iowa polls shows her tied for fifth
place in Iowa with 2.7% support, well behind leaders Warren, Biden,
Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who are
all in double digits in support.
(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Peter Cooney,
Jonathan Oatis and Bill Berkrot)
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