These days, it all seems to be bad news for the 2020 presidential campaign of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). This time, though, the trouble is taking place behind the scenes.
A soon-to-be former Harris aide has called the senator’s campaign out for its unacceptable treatment of staff members.
The final straw
Nov. 30th, marks the effective date for the resignation of Kelly Mehlenbacher, who was Harris’ state operations director. According to Mehlenbacher, the reason for her departure is the extremely poor treatment doled out to campaign staffers.
“This is my third presidential campaign and I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly,” she wrote in her resignation letter, which she tendered on Nov. 11. “While I still believe that Senator Harris is the strongest candidate to win in the General Election in 2020, I no longer have confidence in our campaign or its leadership.”
Mehlendbacher went on to explain in more detail what she finds troubling about the campaign’s internal operations.
“It is not acceptable to me that we encouraged people to move from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore only to lay them off with no notice, with no plan for the campaign, and without thoughtful consideration of the personal consequences to them or the consequences that their absence would have on the remaining staff,” she wrote. “It is unacceptable that we would lay off anyone that we hired only weeks earlier. It is unacceptable that with less than 90 days until Iowa we still do not have a real plan to win.”
Root of the problem
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), who supports Harris in her bid for the presidency, believes that the cause of problem is campaign manager Juan Rodriguez. Accordingly, Fudge has revealed that she has pleaded with Harris to get rid of Rodriguez.
“I have told her there needs to be a change,” Fudge said. “The weakness is at the top. And it’s clearly Juan. He needs to take responsibility — that’s where the buck stops.”
Rodriguez, however, provided a different take.
“Our team, from the candidate to organizers across the country, are working day in and out to make sure Kamala is the nominee to take on Donald Trump and end the national nightmare that is his presidency,” he said. “Just like every campaign, we have made tough decisions to have the resources we need to place in Iowa and springboard into the rest of the primary calendar.”
The inevitable
Of course, there are always problems like these when things are not moving in a positive direction, campaign-wise, and things have not been going Harris’ way for quite some time. Not too long ago it was reported that the Harris campaign was running dangerously low on funds and has essentially been forced to go “all-in” in Iowa.
Since then, Harris has not been doing much better. She currently stands well behind the frontrunners for her party’s nomination, managing to garner just 10% support in a recent poll.
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