Political insiders and advisers in former President Obama’s orbit are increasingly joining Vice President Harris’ campaign as she prepares to face off against former President Trump in November.
Harris has less than 100 days to inspire voters to rally behind her White House run after President Biden dropped out of the race in the wake of mounting concerns over his mental acuity and 81 years of age. The vice president officially clinched her party's 2024 presidential nomination on Friday, earning more than a majority of votes from convention delegates, the DNC reported.
After Biden’s departure from the race, Harris is in the midst of building out her campaign team, most notably adding a bevy of Obama orbit insiders and advisers to her election effort.
Last week, Harris hired David Plouffe as a senior campaign adviser after he managed Obama's presidential campaign in 2008 and served as a senior aide to Obama’s successful 2012 re-election effort. Harris also hired Stephanie Cutter as her campaign’s senior adviser for strategy messaging, after Cutter’s work as deputy campaign manager for Obama's 2012 election.
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Harris also brought on Mitch Stewart as a senior adviser for battleground states after he worked for both of Obama’s campaigns as a grassroots strategist, the Washington Post reported. David Binder, who has long worked with Harris, is also expanding his role in the campaign to oversee its team of pollsters. Binder previously worked on Obama’s public opinion research team.
Harris also brought on veteran Democratic operative Jennifer Palmieri as senior adviser to Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff. Palmieri served as White House director of communications under the Obama administration and as director of communications for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 White House bid.
Harris also previously tapped Obama’s former attorney general, Eric Holder, to lead the vetting process of her potential running mates, while Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, who worked as Obama’s 2012 deputy campaign manager and Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign chair, was announced as Harris’ campaign manager.
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The 44th president had remained coy for days last month before offering his endorsement of Harris’ presidential run. Since leaving the Oval Office, Obama has typically held his endorsement card close to his chest. He endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in June 2016, while his endorsement of Biden in 2020 was only made days ahead of the Democratic National Convention.
Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama officially endorsed Harris last week in a video.
"I can’t have this phone call without saying to my girl Kamala: I am proud of you. This is going to be historic," Michelle Obama said in the video while speaking to Harris.
"We called to say Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office," former President Obama added.
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Harris, who also ran for president in the 2020 cycle before dropping out and running alongside Biden, had long had a friendship with Obama before entering federal politics.
Harris was among the first elected Democrats in the nation to endorse Obama’s first run for president in the 2008 election, snubbing Hillary Clinton in favor of the then-Illinois senator.
Harris was in attendance when Obama announced his candidacy for president in 2007, after first meeting him in 2004 when he was an Illinois state senator running for the U.S. Senate, the Washington Examiner previously reported.
"Barack Obama will be a president who finally ends the era of fear that has been used to divide and demoralize our country," Harris said during California's Democratic convention in 2008.
As Harris built her political career from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general and then senator, Harris was even dubbed "the female Obama" by some political analysts.
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Harris became the Democrat nominee for president upon Biden's withdrawal from the race after his disastrous June debate performance against Trump, which included the president losing his train of thought, stumbling over his words and appearing more subdued than during other public events in recent years. The debate performance opened the floodgates to traditional Democrat allies and legacy media outlets joining conservatives in their concerns over Biden’s mental acuity and age.
After the White House and Biden campaign repeatedly denied the president would drop out of the race, Biden announced in a tweet on a Sunday afternoon last month that he was leaving the race and would carry out his final months in the White House.
Ahead of Biden dropping out of the race, Obama allies notably helped lead the charge in calling for the president to get out of the race in favor of a candidate they believed was more suitable to take on Trump.
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Obama's former chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod, said last month that Biden is "not winning this race." Actor George Clooney called on Biden to drop out of the race in a bombshell op-ed that was published just weeks after the Hollywood star co-hosted Biden, alongside Obama, at a ritzy campaign event in Los Angeles. Clooney has long had a personal friendship with the Obamas, including vacationing with the first couple in previous years.
Another ally in Obama's orbit, Jon Favreau, who served as former director of speech writing for Obama, also called on Biden to drop out of the race last month, saying he attended the fundraiser in L.A. with Clooney and Obama and witnessed firsthand Biden's state of mental acuity. Favreau, alongside former Obama advisers Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor – known collectively as the "Obama Bros" when they worked in the White House – also dedicated the majority of a podcast episode of "Pod Save America" in June to trashing Biden.
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Harris announced her running mate on Tuesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Harris and Walz are expected to travel to Chicago this month for the Democratic National Convention while the election cycle enters its final months.
