When, Sen. Barack Obama kicked off his 2008 presidential campaign with a raucous rally in Springfield, Illinois, but eagle-eyed political observers may have noticed an unexpected face in the crowd: the San Francisco district attorney. kamala harris.
Harris was an early Obama supporter and an ardent convert to the Democratic Party’s bold vision of reshaping the state’s costly and inefficient field operations. She opened the door for Obama’s campaign in Iowa in 2008 and later managed Obama’s field efforts in California as state campaign co-chair. When Harris rose to become vice president, she kept insisting The aim is to register and attract new voters using President Obama’s aggressive style.
Sixteen years later, Harris is now applying the lessons she learned during Obama’s presidential campaign to a bigger, more expansive political operation. get more cash More so than with Obama. With less than a month until Election Day, Ms. Harris is betting everything on the hope that Ms. Obama’s well-funded campaign can provide a decisive boost in the close battleground states. If she’s right, Democrats will soon be hailing the Harris model of voter activation as a blueprint for 2028 and beyond.
Ms. Harris’ recent campaign moves suggest she is serious about implementing Mr. Obama’s strategy of funneling money to state and local grassroots voter outreach. Back in August, Harris quickly signed Obama campaign veterans David Plouffe, Stephanie Cutter and Mitch Stewart. Senior level role within your campaign. She also reframed her campaign message to subtly express her “freedom” message. natural course President Obama’s effective “hope” image.
It’s hard to miss the outpouring of enthusiasm for Harris’ campaign from grassroots Democratic circles. The enthusiasm of Democratic voters Rising to record levelsThat’s leading to an influx of new voters and first-time donors, according to recent data from the conservative Wall Street Journal. In July, Harris’ candidacy led Vote.org to a new record for voter registration. Approximately 40,000 people Sign up in just 48 hours.
Registering new voters is (relatively) easy. It’s even harder to get first-time voters to vote from their homes on Election Day. That’s why the 2008 Obama campaign invested heavily in efforts to connect first-time voters with early voting resources. go to the polling station For voters with mobility challenges. Providing such a complex service requires a campaign to secure sufficient redundancy and build a strong local presence. Harris’ campaign is already working to make sure that doesn’t become an issue.
Last month, the Harris campaign announced: Open more than a dozen new election offices Located in the key battleground state of Virginia. The campaign also recently announced the opening of its 50th field office in Pennsylvania. 6 more regional offices Supporting over 12,000 new volunteers in North Carolina. Harris is currently seeking to deploy more than 300 field offices and 200,000 volunteers in all 50 states.
That includes Florida, a state that was once considered unwinnable for Democrats. With about a month until the election, Harris is currently trailing Trump by a narrow margin. 4 percentage points.
“I saw field work pay off as an organizer in Florida in 2008, which is why I’m not surprised by the surge in field work we’ve witnessed here in recent months,” said Ben, founder of Evergreen Strategies.・Mr. Sharp said. She served as a voter outreach staffer for the Florida Democratic Party.
Sharp added: “What stands out is how fast it is. [Harris] I realized what resources she has on earth. They’re giving people ownership of these programs and letting them fly. This is a fundamental part of community organizing. People become more invested in their work and results. ”
For the first time, Democrats actually have the money to build the field organization of their dreams. Harris has raised more money in a short period of time than any presidential candidate in history and enters the final stages of the campaign season with a monumental amount of money. Total fundraising in August was $361 million. That’s enough money to build a field operation more than twice the size of the Obama administration, and it’s clear that Harris is making the necessary investments to build a powerful voter engagement machine.
Things don’t look much better on the Republican side. Last month, the Trump campaign quietly announced that: Reduce on-site investment Campaigns in New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Virginia have cited a decline in competitiveness as a reason for the news. spend more than you raise September’s fundraising statistics showed an increase for the second consecutive month. Republican insiders are currently issue an alarm About President Trump’s lack of a serious ground campaign in the face of the Democratic Party’s organized efforts. Some are already concerned that it is too late for Mr. Trump to recover from his considerable disadvantage.
Harris’ wise decision to reactivate many veteran state-level Obama operatives allowed Democrats to quickly ramp up campaign efforts that had stalled under President Joe Biden. By forcing Republicans to funnel dwindling funds to once-safe states like Arizona, Florida and North Carolina, Ms. Harris achieved one of her biggest organizing victories: expanding the electoral map. .
Harris’ team currently works with Latinos, women, young people, Black Americans, Native Americans, urban dwellers, and people living in rural areas from North Carolina to Nevada to Alaska. We are doing The organization is a well-funded, professional operation, staffed by campaign veterans who have spent nearly two decades finding hard-to-reach first-time voters. It’s also the voting machine that could give Harris decisive margins of victory in razor-edge races like Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Thank you, Obama.
