Harris's team huddles with donors to plot path forward

[highplainsdem]

WSJ story this evening, found thanks to Maggie Haberman retweeting a tweet from one of the article's authors.

Some of the donors the Harris campaign met with told the WSJ reporters that they're considering switching their support to Biden if Harris doesn't start doing better in the polls.

Link to tweet

Some Friday news w/ @EmilyGlazer: Harris team huddled with top donors in NYC in two meetings today. Told them they were working on defining the Harris with a more refined core message, talked about stagnant poll numbers, upcoming debate dynamics.

From the article:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kamala-harriss-team-huddles-to-plot-path-forward-11567812351?emailToken=ec60fd6cd561dcffe1951f42a63ac284mdnrrI0nPX0eFuxM1l6wcJOOvdAA+2k1IOfWe4zTUcP3IrtFNEUNRuJXzJLGkaDvrni1dM77nijgcPL0LD61cbkJol16nUE9DUQ2dkQikbI%3D&reflink=article_copyURL_share

Top advisers to Sen. Kamala Harris made their case to major donors behind closed doors in two meetings in New York on Friday, telling them they were working on defining the California Democrat with a more refined core message.

In the first meeting with a broader group, Ms. Harris’s sister and campaign chairwoman, Maya Harris, along with media consultant Jim Margolis, were questioned by some donors on the senator’s stagnant poll numbers in the Democratic presidential primary. The Harris aides talked up Ms. Harris’s key endorsements in early states, appeal to young voters and their view of the vulnerability of former Vice President Joe Biden ’s poll numbers, people familiar with the meetings said.

The advisers in the second meeting, with a smaller group of top donors, focused more on the need for voters to know Ms. Harris better—and on the campaign’s strategy to accomplish that through clearer messaging of her values and policy positions, the people said.

-snip-

Ahead of the meeting Friday, at least half a dozen top donors to Ms. Harris’s campaign told The Wall Street Journal that they were looking for her to pick up momentum heading into the fall, when more voters traditionally tune in to the primary.

But some also said they feared the Democratic primary is increasingly becoming a three-way race between Mr. Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Some of the donors said they—and others they had talked to—could shift some of their support to Mr. Biden if Ms. Harris’s poll numbers didn’t start trending upward.

-snip-

[LincolnRossiter]

1. She definitely needs to shake something up if she wants to remain viable.

I honestly still don’t put much stock in the idea that the debates have some long-term indelible impact on these races. Maybe they influence voters who are shopping or haven’t been plugged in, but I doubt many who are leaning or have made up theirs minds change course because of these poorly-run spectacles.

[highplainsdem]

3. I agree, both about Harris needing to make some changes to stay viable, and about the

debates not having much impact.

[dsc]

2. She has a simple, but not necessarily easy, path to the nomination

she has to flip most of the black vote from Biden, where it mostly is now, to her. I think she is the most likely candidate to be able to do that but that doesn't mean I think it is likely she can do that.

[highplainsdem]

5. Both Harris and Booker have been frustrated by their inability, so far, to make serious dents in

Biden's support among black voters.

It will be interesting to see if that continues.

[dsc]

6. This could be like 2008 or it might not be

Once Obama was viable by winning Iowa the black vote flipped. If Harris is under performing due to black people not thinking that the country is ready for a black woman then she might flip the vote if she shows herself viable in Iowa and NH. If it is instead that they simply prefer Biden to Harris then she won't.

[Cha]

4. Thank you for this..

Interesting.