One of the strongest arguments for Kamala Harris stepping up if Joe Biden “steps aside” from the 2024 presidential nominations is that she’s been part of Biden’s core team all along and could more or less take over his preexisting presidential campaign along with its funds (since this campaign was always styled legally and politically as a Biden-Harris reelection effort). But even as the struggle over Biden’s status rages in Washington and around the country, an NBC News story appeared that suggested a Harris presidential candidacy might not just be a Biden hand-me-down:
A group of Democrats who believe Vice President Kamala Harris should be the party’s nominee if President Joe Biden steps aside have begun quietly mapping out what her presidential campaign apparatus would look like and what her path to victory could be in November, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the planning.
The effort, which Harris has not sanctioned as she continues to publicly and privately support Biden remaining in the race, comes as many are concerned that the vice president does not currently have the personnel or organization needed to quickly make the pivot to the top of the ticket, the source said. …
As part of their work, the informal group that includes Democratic strategists and aides with presidential campaign experience are already mapping out how Harris’ strategy for victory could be different from the one Biden took to win in 2020 and from what he was planning to do this year. The group, which does not include Harris’ team and is not advocating for Biden to step aside, are also discussing who in Biden’s current campaign structure may need to be replaced.
Now obviously Harris would need to put her personal stamp on a general-election campaign, and its strategy might require a fresh look, particularly to determine if (as some polling suggests) Harris can improve on Biden’s performance among non-white and under-30 voters. Maybe she could put Georgia and North Carolina back into play, maybe not. But it would be foolish to squander the massive organizational and ad investments the Biden campaign has made in the Blue Wall states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin unless it’s very clear there is an alternative path to 270 electoral votes.
And more to the immediate point, partywide confidence in Harris would be much stronger if she did not attempt to rebuild a campaign organization on the fly and/or purge veteran campaign operatives, particularly given the poor reputation of Harris’s own stillborn 2020 presidential campaign. She would do well to make it clear she won’t dismantle a well-regarded Biden machine. There’s really just no time for that.
