Alarm Bells Are Ringing at Team Kamala HQ

Kamala Harris

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks in a Democratic presidential primary debate hosted by CNN/New York Times at Otterbein University, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019, in Westerville, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

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Is it all over but the crying for Sen. Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign?

Last night, I wrote about how Harris was trailing Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) in two recent polls, just three months after she made fun of the Hawaii congresswoman’s low polling numbers during a post-debate interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

We’ve also documented other instances of her campaign’s implosion extensively here at RedState, including noting how Harris was performing poorly in crucial primary states, including her own.

In late September, it was widely reported that Harris was in the midst restructuring her senior campaign staff in an effort to reverse her campaign’s slow but steady freefall.

Fast forward four weeks later and we have the biggest sign yet that the writing is on the wall for Team Kamala. Why? Because layoffs are happening:

Kamala Harris is dramatically restructuring her campaign by redeploying staffers to Iowa and laying off dozens of aides at her Baltimore headquarters, according to campaign sources and a memo obtained Wednesday by POLITICO, as she struggles to resuscitate her beleaguered presidential bid.

The moves come as Harris is hemorrhaging cash and in danger of lacking the resources to mount a competitive bid against better-funded rivals in Iowa. The overhaul will touch nearly every facet of Harris’ operation, with layoffs or re-deployments coming at headquarters, as well as in New Hampshire, Nevada and her home state of California, a Super Tuesday prize that her advisers once viewed as a big asset.

Campaign Manager Juan Rodriguez will cut his salary, according to the memo, which was just over $10,000 a month in the third quarter of the year. Harris’ consultants will also have their payments reduced and the campaign plans to trim and renegotiate other contracts to slash overhead. Along with getting back in the black, a big motivation behind the cost-cutting decisions is a plan to stash enough resources for a seven-figure media buy in the weeks before the Iowa caucus.

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Read the memo below:

The USA Today reports that Harris told supporters on Wednesday she has always felt like the underdog in the race. This in spite of the fact that she has been quick to note she’s a “top tier” candidate in past interviews, even as her campaign was in the midst of cratering:

Harris insisted Wednesday that she has always felt like an underdog in this race. Unlike other candidates, she pointed out, she had not run for president before and did not have a long donor list from which to draw. She also said she didn’t have enough money to throw $10 million of her own funds into the campaign to give herself a boost.

“It never was supposed to be easy,” she said.

Oh boohoo.

In answer to my first question, short of her pulling off a miracle in Iowa and her home state of California, yes, it’s all over but the crying for her campaign. About the only person who doesn’t see that at this stage in the game is the candidate herself.

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— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 16+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –

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