Kamala Harris has not had the best few weeks. Between her approval rating dipping to 28%, a deluge of bad press tied to the Joe Biden succession drama, and high-profile departures from her office, the vice president seemed in need of a reset—in terms of both optics and strategy. That may be part of why, on Monday, Harris gathered nearly 20 members of Black Women Leaders and Allies, a coalition of civil rights-focused organizations, and sought a kind of community update, Politico reported.
Besides running through various domestic and foreign issues and asking the women which policies they’d like to see her do more on, Harris wanted to hear “creative ways” to tie her work to the people impacted by it, according to Politico. “She was asking for clarity on how to best touch the everyday American rank and file,” said D4 In Action’s Shavon Arline-Bradley. “She said ‘I want the message to resonate with the Beltway and beyond, outside of Washington, D.C. How do I get that message out?’”
Harris also asked for outside perspective. Per Politico:
The women in the room seemed to see the town hall—and Harris’s receptiveness—as heralding a new phase of the vice president’s approach. As one attendee told Politico, the administration understands the need to “start doing some midcourse correction in terms of messaging, but also methods of messaging.” At one point, according to Arline-Bradley, the group discussed Harris using them as “ambassadors” to communicate her policy work to Black voters—Democrats’ most loyal constituency—and other laypeople.
Reports of the gathering come amid a slew of unflattering headlines around Harris’s role in the Biden administration, including about supposed dysfunction in her office and whether she can be an effective standard-bearer for the Democratic party. While the White House has dismissed these stories as manufactured drama, the coverage has coincided with turnover in the vice president’s office—including the exits of communications chief Ashley Etienne and senior adviser and chief spokesperson Symone Sanders—that has helped fan the flames. Etienne’s departure, first reported by my colleague Abigail Tracy last month, was expected—“she had made the decision to leave at this time upon taking the job,” Tracy noted—but the timing nevertheless made it easy for outlets to tie it to rumored friction. Sanders’ exit, on the other hand, raised more questions, even as she insisted the decision “has absolutely nothing to do with my unhappiness.”
The intervening coverage of Harris has spun out into left field, including a raft of stories on whether or not she uses wireless headphones—an issue that doesn’t necessarily jibe with her history-making role as vice president. It seems evident, based on Politico’s reporting, that Harris herself recognizes the need for a reset. Whether she can make that happen is another matter; some have suggested that Harris is the common denominator in the stories of staff dysfunction that have sprung up around her. But the high-level departures may also be an opportunity to breathe new life into Harris’s strategy, which will have ramifications across the party and beyond. “Her failing is not an option,” said Arline-Bradley.
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