Inside the tension in Harris' "Frankenstein" team
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The good vibes of Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign mask tensions among competing factions, as Harris loyalists and Obama alumni are grafted onto what had been President Biden's campaign.
Why it matters: New people are remaking the campaign on the fly. The result is a large and at times unwieldy team, with internal worries about cohesiveness when inevitable stumbles arise, six people involved in the campaign tell Axios.
- Biden's campaign was insular, with a few long-serving aides making big decisions. The Harris campaign has become a diffuse "Frankenstein" team with multiple power centers.
Zoom in: Harris kept most of Biden's team in place. But the main architect of the Biden campaign's messaging strategy, Mike Donilon, has left and returned to the White House.
- Harris has brought on her own staffers along with prominent aides from President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, while also keeping many top Biden campaign officials.
Between the lines: Harris' team has been wary of making the Biden people feel set aside. But that has led to some internal confusion about who's in charge.
- "The entanglement of these different entities has led to many people feeling a real lack of role clarity," one person involved in the campaign told Axios.
- Another person involved with the campaign said there isn't "as much tension at the very, very top, where the question is more: 'Who is the first among equals with the vice president?'"
- The confusion about who's in charge is happening more often "two or three rungs down," this source said.
The intrigue: Some on Biden's team thought many top Obama aides had been second-guessing their decisions for months — and were part of the effort to push the president to end his run for re-election.
Harris brought on prominent election lawyer Marc Elias. Biden's camp had split with Elias last year over concerns about his strategy.
- Elias, now helping with the Democrats' recount strategy, is close to former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served under Obama and was brought on by Harris to help vet vice-presidential candidates.
- That search ended with Harris picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Reality check: People involved in the campaign are hoping the short timetable before Election Day — now 68 days — won't allow tensions to fester.
- "It's just a mad dash," said one person involved in the campaign. "Things are colliding occasionally, but it's not malicious."
- The clunky organization will be fine as long as the team believes it can win, another said.
Zoom out: Harris hasn't just changed the makeup of Biden's former team. She's changed some of its messaging.
- Her campaign has focused on "freedom" and the "future" over Biden's emphasis on "democracy" and what he's accomplished as president.
- Many Biden campaign aides have welcomed the burst of enthusiasm, and believe the president was less electable than Harris after his performance against former President Trump in the June debate.
Even so, some are frustrated by having to defend Harris for her past support of progressive issues such as Medicare for All and banning fracking.
- Harris' and other Democrats' support for those issues in the 2020 campaign was partly why Biden won the Democratic nomination and beat Trump, they argue.
- They see some vindication for Biden as Harris is now changing positions on such issues.
What they're saying: Harris' campaign declined to comment.
