President Joe Biden insists he’s staying in the race, and Vice President Kamala Harris is standing by his side. But that hasn’t stopped the first hints of a pro-Harris shadow campaign from taking shape — with or without her blessing — as Democrats debate the future of their presidential ticket.
A handful of alumni of Hillary Clinton’s and Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaigns have come together to form United for Harris, so far the first public-facing effort to promote a potential 2024 presidential campaign for Harris, news of which was shared first with NBC News.
Organizers compare the effort to Ready for Hillary, the group that formed months before the former secretary of state officially entered the 2016 contest, which recruited volunteers who pledged their support as they waited for the formal campaign to begin.
“We just want to put it out there that there are folks who are wanting to rally around the vice president, should Joe Biden step aside,” said Matt Ortega, a Democratic digital strategist who served as digital director for communications on Clinton’s campaign. “The idea is to give some people out there who want Harris to be at the top of the ticket a focal point.”
Ortega said the goals of the group are relatively modest: Give Harris supporters “an actionable thing to do” as they wait for the succession crisis to unfold. And to promote Harris’ potential candidacy with what they hope will be a strong show of support for the vice president.
Ortega said the group does not plan to retain the data it collects or live on in any form beyond this unique moment.
The effort is not authorized by Harris or her team, which has assiduously avoided doing anything that could interpreted as disloyal to Biden.
Harris’ spokesperson declined to comment.
It comes as Democrats are beginning to split into the three camps: Those who want to stick with Biden, those who want to replace him with Harris, and a third group that wants an open nominating process where multiple candidates could compete at next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The pro-Harris camp argues that she represents enough change to re-energize Democratic voters and reset the presidential race, while retaining enough continuity from Biden to avoid the potential divisiveness of presidential primary do-over.
“Having worked on the 2016 primary and seeing the 2020 primary, I think reducing that process to a few days creates room for chaos,” Ortega said. “And effectively, Harris was already voted on by the primary voters, so she has democratic legitimacy.”
Harris supporters say Democrats could still get some of the excitement of an open convention through the jockeying for the vice presidential slot, which would need to be filled if Biden steps aside and Harris replaces him atop the ticket.
With polls showing Biden currently trailing former President Donald Trump, Harris supporters say it’s better to take a chance on her rather than stick with a candidate they view as doomed.
“It’s a risk, it’s unprecedented,” United for Harris argues on its website. “But we’re down with just seconds to go in the third quarter, and we know Kamala Harris will make us proud.”
Harris struggled during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, which she entered with momentum and money before fizzling out disappointingly early.
She had particular issues with progressives that year, and now, some of Biden’s most vocal defenders are coming from the left, including figures like Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
But other progressives have re-evaluated Harris, and the nascent pseudocampaign on her behalf got a big boost Saturday from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a progressive who ran against both Biden and Harris in the 2020 Democratic primary.
“What gives me a lot of hope right now is that if President Biden decides to step back, we have Vice President Kamala Harris, who is ready to step up to unite the party, to take on Donald Trump and to win,” she said in an interview on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.”
“I’ve known Kamala for nearly 15 years now, back when I was setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Kamala was attorney general of California,” Warren added. “We worked side by side to try to fight back against giant banks that were cheating people. Kamala has led the charge in order to fight back against the Republicans that want a nationwide abortion ban.”
Democratic Party rules make it virtually impossible to replace Biden unless he steps aside. And the party is still on track to formally nominate him in a virtual roll call vote during the first week of August. His campaign says he will be back on the stump starting next week after he recovers from Covid.
