If she wins, Vice President Harris is expected to name a Cabinet and West Wing that are younger than President Biden's, with more people of color, sources close to her tell Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei for a Behind the Curtain column.

• Why it matters: Biden took a comfort-food approach to staff, so a second term could've looked like a rerun. Despite her risk aversion, Harris — while turning to plenty of familiar names — will also add some powerful new characters to Washington's cast.

It's been 18 days since Biden bowed out. Harrisworld has been consumed with locking up the nomination, rebooting the campaign, preparing for the convention in Chicago two weeks from now — and getting ready for last night's captivating debut with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

• So staffing the government hasn't been a central obsession. But based on conversations with a wide variety of current and former aides and associates, we can give you a good sense of her early shortlists.
• "You won't see a bunch of new people you've never heard of," said one Harris adviser, noting she kept much of Biden's campaign hierarchy.

What we're hearing: The options listed below are preliminary. But they show how Harris and her team will start mapping her prospective administration:

• White House chief of staff: Harris, who has already made lots of history herself, might well make history with the first chief of staff who is Black — perhaps former Attorney General Eric Holder, who led the vetting of her veep options. Or the first chief of staff who's a woman — perhaps Lorraine Voles, her vice-presidential chief of staff, or Jen O'Malley Dillon, the campaign chair. Either could also be rewarded with the plum West Wing jobs of counselor or senior adviser.
• Secretary of State: Sen. Chris Coons (Del.), who's on the Foreign Relations Committee, would love to run Foggy Bottom. For confirmation reasons, Harris could be expected to lean into senators and former senators if Republicans take the Senate. CIA director Bill Burns and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also would be on the list.
• Treasury: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is popular with business and would be considered for Treasury. Wally Adeyemo, now deputy Treasury secretary, is one of the Biden officials most likely to get promoted in a Harris administration. Blair Effron, an investment banking partner who's very active in D.C. and New York, is another name to watch.
• Defense: Another place to make history — perhaps with Michèle Flournoy, who was undersecretary of Defense for policy under President Obama, as the first woman to lead the Pentagon.
• Attorney General: Former Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, a former U.S. attorney, could be confirmed to head Justice, even if Republicans win control of the Senate.
• Commerce: Ray McGuire, president of the investment bank Lazard, Charles Phillips (a tech executive on the Defense Innovation Board), and other Black business leaders would be on the list.
• U.S. ambassador to the UN: Pete Buttigieg, 42, the Transportation Secretary and a finalist for Harris' running mate, still has ambitions to be president one day. So a role where he gets international experience would be attractive to him. We're told he and Harris have gotten friendlier since they were rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
• U.S. trade representative: Tom Nides — U.S. ambassador to Israel under Biden, and deputy secretary of state under Obama, now with the private equity and real estate giant Blackstone — would be strong for USTR, UN ambassador, or other top international roles.
• White House counsel (or Justice): Tony West is a top Harris campaign adviser who's chief legal officer at Uber, a former U.S. associate attorney general, and is married to Harris' sister, Maya. But bringing a family member into the White House is complicated. So West could remain an outside adviser. Brian Nelson, a close California ally who just left the Treasury to join her campaign, could land in a top role, either as White House counsel or at Justice.
• National security adviser: Phil Gordon, Harris' national security adviser in the V.P.'s office, looks headed for this role. Others to watch include Tom Donilon, who was Obama's national security adviser, and Rahm Emanuel, now U.S. ambassador to Japan.
• White House press secretary: Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign's senior adviser for communications, would be a top contender for the podium. Fallon is an alumnus of Sen. Chuck Schumer's tough office, plus the Justice Department and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Ian Sams, who has done well in podium outings as White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, worked on Harris' 2019 presidential campaign.
• Communications director: Lily Adams, assistant Treasury secretary for public affairs, was communications director in Harris' Senate office and on her 2019 campaign.

Column continues below.

Vice President Harris has had a stair-step progression to the pinnacle of American power — from elected D.A. of San Francisco, to state attorney general, to U.S. senator, to vice president to party nominee, Mike and Jim write.

• So look for her to reward officials who similarly have worked their way up, and are super-prepared — even over-prepared — for the jobs she gives them.

Watch for: Rahm Emanuel, U.S. ambassador to Japan, to be a key player in the transition if Harris wins. Emanuel is a former House member, Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff for Obama.

• Emanuel would be interested in a Cabinet job with an international dimension.

Harris sources mentioned several current officials who would have a good chance at a variety of Cabinet roles:

• At the top of this list is Sen. Laphonza Butler, 45, a longtime labor leader from Harris' home state of California. She was appointed to fill out the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Butler isn't seeking a full term, so she leaves office in January.
• Sen. Alex Padilla — California's senior senator and the son of parents who emigrated from Mexico — was appointed to fill Harris' term after she was elected vice president, making him the first Latino to represent the Golden State in the Senate.
• If Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were to take a job in a Harris administration, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II would become the Wolverine State's first Black governor.
• All three of those officials would be considered confirmable by a Republican Senate.

Share this column ... Axios' Hans Nichols contributed reporting.

"The promise of America," Vice President Harris said in Philadelphia last evening as she introduced her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, "is what makes it possible for two middle-class kids — one, a daughter of Oakland, Calif., who was raised by a working mother; the other, a son of the Nebraska plains who grew up working on a farm ... Only in America — only in America — is it possible for them, together, to make it all the way to the White House." [Chants of "U-S-A!"]

• 🏈 As defensive coordinator, Walz helped coach the Mankato West (Minn.) High School football team to the school's first state championship in 1999. "Coach Walz and I may hail from different corners of our great country," Harris said, "but our values are the same."

"Don't ever underestimate teachers," Walz said, hamming it up when it was his turn at the microphone.

• "My dad was a teacher. My brothers and sisters and I followed in their footsteps. Three out of four of us married teachers. What we do. For nearly 20 years, I had the privilege of teaching high school social studies and coaching football, including winning that state championship. Don't ever close the yearbook!"

Walz bio.

This afternoon, Harris and Walz will take their road show to Eau Claire, Wis., where they'll be introduced by a dairy and grain farmer. This evening, a first-time voter will introduce them in Detroit.

Bob Woodward will be out Oct. 15 with "War," telling the "behind-the-scenes story of three wars: Ukraine, the Middle East, and the struggle for the American Presidency."

• Why it matters: It was widely known in Washington that Woodward was working on a pre-election book, but details were secret. White House officials spotted the 81-year-old icon strolling into the West Wing, and wondered what he was up to. Now they know.

How it happened: Woodward told me in an interview that his reporting for the book began in 2021, the first year of Biden's presidency, and before Russia invaded Ukraine in what he called a "war of territorial conquest."

• "If the Russians get Ukraine, next on the menu is Poland and Europe," Woodward told me.

After the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, Woodward realized Israel-Gaza was another war of consequence that fit thematically.

• "I confess to being a foreign-policy junkie," said Woodward, whose books include "The Commanders" (about the first Gulf War) and, on President George W. Bush, "Bush at War," "Plan of Attack," and "State of Denial" and "The War Within," followed by "Obama's Wars," then "Fear" and "Rage," on Donald Trump.
• In Woodward's "Peril," written with Robert Costa, then-Vice President Biden is quoted as saying privately about Afghanistan in 2009: "The military doesn't f--k around with me."

Then the third war — at home. "Political contests are wars, and so it kind of threads together what's going on," Woodward said. "The divisions — it's stunning. So I think there is a kind of mental frame in the country and the world about combat, war."

• Jonathan Karp, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, acquired world rights and audio rights to "WAR" from Robert Barnett of Williams & Connolly.

More on the book.

Vice President Harris has narrowly pulled ahead of former President Trump in Nate Silver's election model, which moved last year from FiveThirtyEight to Substack.

• When Biden left the race, Silver's model gave him a slim 26.9% chance of winning the Electoral College.

Full election model ($).

Spying technology is making military maneuvers and equipment nearly impossible to hide, Axios Future of Defense author Colin Demarest writes.

• Why it matters: Surprise has long been winning tenets of warfare. But these ever-watching eyes complicate the calculus of what gear to buy, how to move and where to dig in.

🔭 Between the lines: Hot spots for monitoring include the Korean Peninsula, Middle East, South China Sea and Eastern Europe.

• Keep reading ... Get Axios Future of Defense.

Axios media trends expert Sara Fischer visited the anchors and producers at NBC's "Today" show in Paris at Café de l'Homme in Trocadero Square. The museum, with unobstructed views of the Eiffel Tower, delivers one of the city's best backdrops from its café and balcony, where "Today" built its set and portable control room.

• While the show has seen a huge ratings bump over the past two weeks, it's the digital audience growth that makes Paris stand out from previous Games.

Why it matters: Digital used to be an afterthought for the show, said longtime co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. Now, "it's an absolute priority."

• "We were trying to get Peacock [NBC's streaming services] to be a thing at the last Olympics in Tokyo," said co-anchor Hoda Kotb. "Remember how hard we tried. This is the first year we're totally free. Everything's out there. It's all available."

📱 By the numbers: The program had 65 million and 54 million video views of Olympics content on Instagram and TikTok, respectively, during the first three days of the Games, executive vice president Libby Leist said in an interview.

• The team has zeroed in on optimizing its content for search results. "We really want to capitalize on what people are thinking about while they're watching in real-time," Leist said.

For the first time, the show brought dedicated social media and radio producers to capture behind-the-scenes content.

• Al Roker and Craig Melvin had their croissant crawl documented. A dedicated "Hoda-cam" was set up to capture her reactions to the U.S. women's gymnastics competitions.

Watch the Croissant Crawl ... Get Axios Media Trends.

The pandemic curtailed the corporate cafeteria. But many workplaces are moving to more flexible options to keep employees fed, Axios' Joann Muller writes.

• Why it matters: Free food is a popular corporate perk. But in today's hybrid work environments, fluctuating attendance can lead to waste.

Recurring meal delivery services such as ezCater's Relish can be scaled up or down based on who's actually in the office, while providing employees with personalized choices — and potentially even trimming the boss' food bill.

• Free lunch is also helping some companies lure workers back to the office.

🍽️​ How it works: Employees get a daily meal stipend for use on the Relish app, where they select what they want from a rotating list of local restaurants.

• Meals are individually packaged and delivered to the workplace at a prescribed time.

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