Report: Kamala Harris Laying Off Dozens of Campaign Staffers
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) has been forced to lay off dozens of campaign staffers at her Baltimore headquarters as her flailing bid for the White House continues to suffer from poor polling figures and money woes, according to a report. Politico writes Wednesday that in addition to the layoffs in Baltimore, Harris’s campaign is also slashing or re-deploying staff at her offices in key primary states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, and California. Further, the Harris campaign is cutting salaries of top officials, including campaign manager Juan Rodriguez, who was earning $10,000 per month. “Harris’ consultants will also have their payments reduced and the campaign plans to trim and renegotiate other contracts to slash overhead,” Politico reports.
Harris’ sluggish fundraising performance, paired with overspending, has prompted some inside and outside of her campaign to wonder how long she can keep running for the highest office in the land. In the third quarter, Harris blew $14.6 million but only raised $11.8 million — leaving her with a $2.8 million spending gap. Additionally, her campaign deferred around $900,000 in debts, an accounting trick that inflated her cash on hand. “It’s an unsustainable path,” Ami Copeland, who served as deputy national finance director for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, told Politico. “If that’s the best you’ll squeeze out bringing all of the assets to bear, it’s looking very dire,” Copeland said of Harris’ third-quarter figures.
One unnamed Democrat donor, who gave the maximum amount to Harris’ campaign, expressed frustration with her lack of fundraising prowess. “She’s from fucking California. The idea that you don’t have support of high-dollar donors doesn’t make any sense,” the donor told Politico. “I blame her.”
Harris, whose poll numbers have steadily declined since launching her White House bid in January, sits in fifth place with 4.9 percent support nationally, a Real Clear Politics average of polls shows. A recently-released KQED survey shows Harris quickly losing ground to frontrunners, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in her home state of California. The poll shows Warren leading with primary voters with 28 percent, while Sanders enjoys 24 percent support and former Vice President Joe Biden at 19 percent. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg sits in fourth with 9 percent followed by Harris with a mere 8 percent.
