Harris converts Biden campaign into her own

Vice President Kamala Harris and her chief aides moved swiftly Monday to convert President Joe Biden’s campaign into her own and run an accelerated running mate selection process.

While Harris has rapidly consolidated support within the party, the president’s sudden exit from the race Sunday leaves less than four months until Election Day and forces Harris to make quick decisions on questions that could decide success or failure this fall. It truncates what is typically a yearslong process into weeks and months.

Harris may have only a few days to make perhaps one of the most important decisions: her vice president. Under a draft plan circulated Monday night by the Democratic National Committee, delegates could begin voting on the presidential and vice presidential nominations as early as next week, shrinking the typically exhaustive vetting process for possible candidates into a matter of days.

At an all-staff meeting at the now-Harris campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, Harris announced that both Julie Chávez Rodríguez and Jen O’Malley Dillion will be remaining in their roles leading the team as campaign manager and campaign chair, respectively.

“We’re building the plane while we’re flying it,” said former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers, a close Harris ally. “She’s going to be everywhere. Her message will be everywhere. This is going to be unlike anything we've seen before. These won’t be baby steps. She'll explode on the scene.”

Immediately after Biden’s dropout on Sunday, the vice president’s team began plotting her reintroduction to the public as a presidential candidate, how she will respond to attacks from former President Donald Trump’s camp and how Harris’ electoral coalition will differ from Biden’s, according to three sources familiar with the efforts who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

There’s also talk of a campaign blitz across the battleground states, where Harris will target Trump and Project 2025, the policy plans published by Trump’s allies, which Democrats see as fertile ground for attacks. Harris will also seek to introduce herself in her own right, while delivering a proactive case for continued Democratic governance. This account is based on interviews with 20 people around Harris’ orbit, including aides, allies and Democratic officials.

During her first visit to campaign headquarters as an announced candidate, Harris previewed the attacks she is poised to launch against Trump: She’s a prosecutor, and he’s a convicted felon.

“I was the elected attorney general, and before that I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris said. “Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump's type.”

The first major test of Harris’ hold over her own campaign will come with the selection of a vice president. Democrats and Harris allies are circling several names in the hours since she took over: Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. More potential candidates, promoted by other Democrats, include Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“It’s going to be totally her call,” a Harris confidant told POLITICO. Two other people close to Harris and in touch with her team echoed that sentiment, saying the pick would be someone she’s fully on board with despite taking over the campaign from Biden in the late stages.

But the time constraints complicate that process and require Harris to go with gut instincts. Typically, presidential nominees get weeks, and sometimes months, to vet potential VP picks.

“Some of this is chemistry. She knows having been VP what it feels like. What kind of partner does she want in this,” said one Harris ally who is in touch with her team. “Some will require more [vetting] than others.”

The nomination process could start as early as next week as the DNC is on track to keep its virtual roll call. The proposal came after an aggressive push to convince delegates to still back it, particularly now that Harris effectively cleared the field of would-be challengers, according to one person directly familiar with the committee’s thinking and granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

“This has been an open process because no one has told anyone not to get in,” said one member of the Democratic National Convention rules committee, also granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. “But no one else has dipped their toe in the water.”

Among the immediate responsibilities is staff. Harris' allies have already approached David Plouffe, former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, to help run what would be a hybrid team of advisers at the top of the organizational chart, according to two people familiar with the outreach who requested anonymity to share sensitive information.

Plouffe’s admirers are encouraging him to accept a position in the Harris campaign, believing the vice president needs more proven hands who offer a voice from outside the Biden and Harris orbits.

Despite new voices coming in, Harris and her intermediaries have moved quickly to assure Biden’s campaign staff that they’ll stay on board for the duration. O’Malley Dillon, who has worked closely with Plouffe from their Obama days, made the same pledge to staff on several calls Sunday.

“We are the ones that are going to work with Vice President Harris to carry this forward, and we're going to be excited for new people to come on board,” she said, according to one person who was on the call and provided a transcript to POLITICO.

Adam Cancryn contributed to this report.