When then-Sen. Barack Obama kicked off his 2008 presidential campaign with a raucous rally in Springfield, Illinois, eagle-eyed political observers might have noticed a surprising face in the crowd: San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.
Harris was both an early Obama supporter and a fierce convert to his bold vision for reshaping Democrats’ costly and inefficient state field operations. She hit the doors for Obama in Iowa in 2008 and later went on to manage his California field operations as state campaign co-chair. As Harris rose through the ranks to become vice president, she continued to advocate for Obama’s aggressive style of registering and engaging new voters.
Sixteen years later, Harris is now applying lessons learned during the Obama campaign to a political operation that is both larger and more flush with cash than Obama’s ever was. With less than a month until election day, Harris is staking it all on the hope that a better-funded version of Obama’s operation can provide a critical boost in closely contested swing states. If she’s right, Democrats could soon be hailing the “Harris model” of voter activation as the blueprint for 2028 and beyond.
Harris’ recent campaign moves suggest she’s serious about implementing Obama’s strategy of pouring money into state and local grassroots voter outreach. Back in August, Harris was quick to sign Obama campaign veterans David Plouffe, Stephanie Cutter, and Mitch Stewart to senior-level roles within her own campaign. She’s also reshaped her campaign message to not-so-subtly frame her “freedom” message as a natural progression of Obama’s effective “hope” imagery.
