Kamala Harris allies prepare her defense

Allies of Kamala Harris are engaged in a delicate, behind-the-scenes effort to make sure the vice president moves to the top of the ticket if President Joe Biden steps aside, according to five people involved in the project or with knowledge of the discussions.

The endeavor, which has not been sanctioned by Harris or her team, has become more urgent as Joe Biden’s presidential campaign appeared to be teetering late Thursday.

The informal campaign is complicated because of how urgently Harris would need to build a political operation as well as craft a biography that makes it clear she has more to offer than her high-profile defense of reproductive rights to include other foreign and domestic issues, the people involved said. The plan is to create a set of talking points around her accomplishments to paint a more fulsome picture of a candidate.

It’s also an acknowledgment from her allies that there is still doubt within the party, including Democratic leaders, about her ability to win the presidency against former President Donald Trump. And there will be little time to, first, stop an open convention and, second, win in November.

The disjointed group is not trying to push Biden aside, but rather activating an army to be ready to defend the person who they believe should be the new presidential nominee.

“There is an effort quietly afoot to position an apparatus to turn on the lights” when the time is right, said one person directly involved in the conversations, who like others in this story were granted anonymity to discuss private and sensitive discussions.

Those familiar with the effort — which is targeted at Democratic party leaders — say it includes former Harris staffers, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, civil rights leaders and long-standing allies of the vice president.

“Two or three days ago, people were quiet. And now, as of yesterday especially, people were like, ‘We need to be ready,’” the former Biden aide said. "They are young in their infancy, but they have grown stronger by the hour.”

At a dinner of CBC members and civil rights leaders this week, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) vociferously defended Biden’s position at the top of the ticket but added that if he chooses to leave of his own volition, his replacement needs to be Harris, the person said. Clyburn implied that they’d need to defend Harris if Biden left the ticket.

Clyburn’s main message was that open conventions are messy and would likely lose the party the election. Two of the people who spoke to POLITICO said that leaders around the table agreed.

A Clyburn spokesperson wouldn’t confirm his remarks but pointed to prior comments in which he said Harris “absolutely” had his endorsement if she was at the top of the ticket.

There is a dire need for this ad hoc apparatus: Harris has little political operation of her own. As one former senior Biden administration aide who is not involved in the planning but has been made aware of the conversations put it, “There’s not a ‘Run, Kamala, Run’ group waiting in the wings. There are a lot of people who are very supportive of her but she doesn’t have an outside apparatus.”

As the conversation around Biden’s political future has evolved in the last three weeks, allies of Harris and Biden have been disturbed that Democrats have been far too open about the idea of bypassing her or making her fight for it, multiple sources said.

David Plouffe, President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, told MSNBC that Harris would be “smart to say, ‘Hey, I want to earn this.’ She is in the absolute driver’s seat.”

Still, he added, “in almost any scenario she is going to be the Democratic nominee. Maybe it’s a baton handoff, maybe it’s open.”

So much of this depends on what Biden does. If he were to drop out and either say outright there should be an open convention or not take a stance, Harris’ path becomes more difficult, as she would have to compete with an entire slate of ambitious presidential hopefuls.

One person involved in the effort said that the tentative plan is to first make clear that while they believe it would be a mistake to skip over the first Black woman to be vice president in history in a party propped up by Black women, there are other political and policy-based reasons to go with Harris.

“Step one, is to make certain that it is known she is imminently qualified on policy from a loud chorus of people making the case on TV and online,” the person said. “Step two involves an organized effort to make the case to yes, the American people, but also to make the case to a convention, it needs to be her” for the same reasons.

Those involved have worked to keep the conversations private so as to not damage Harris’ stance with Biden or his inner circle, who could get the wrong impression that she was making any moves.

Harris herself is also at a clear disadvantage by her loyalty, publicly and privately, to Biden. Unlike the other alternative names that have been bandied about, Harris and her team can’t be seen as maneuvering against Biden.

“She is a sitting duck. She can’t have any delegate conversations or anything,” said one of the people involved in the planning. Other possible contenders “are getting free rein, getting to take out the president while simultaneously pushing for their own candidate. They are taking advantage of her loyalty.”

Those allies view Harris’ silence as the best choice for her. She’s been one of the most vociferous defenders of Biden, both publicly and privately. She’s told her team to keep their heads down and not engage in any planning and not to speak to the press.

As opposed to the fight to defend Biden, the battle to push Harris to the top of the ticket will have to be fought on multiple fronts, against a host of different factions of the party that want their preferred candidate to be at the top.