Democratic leaders in Pennsylvania are expressing frustration with Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign efforts in the must-win battleground state, describing the operation as “a mess.” “Pennsylvania is such a mess, and it’s incredibly frustrating,” one elected Democratic state official told Politico. “I feel like we’re going to win here, but we’re going to win it in spite of the Harris state campaign.”
Pennsylvania officials, party leaders, and allies have criticized the campaign’s weak relationship with key Democratic figures, particularly in Philadelphia and its suburbs, according to Politico. Many elected state officials have reported feeling excluded from Harris events, stating that surrogates have not been utilized effectively and that the local campaign needs to engage more with Black, Asian, and Latino voters.
Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes are seen as essential for the Harris team. Although the vice president has visited the swing state more than a dozen times since taking over from President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, she currently leads former President Donald Trump by less than half a percentage point in the state, having held a more than 2-point lead just a month ago. Democratic leaders are concerned that Harris is not doing enough to win over Pennsylvania’s Black, Asian, and Latino voters—demographics that have traditionally supported the party but that Harris has struggled to engage.
One Democratic official from Pennsylvania told Politico that “the party infrastructure is non-existent” in Asian and Latino grassroots organizations. Mariel Joy Kornblith Martin, the campaign’s former Pennsylvania Latino coalition manager, resigned from the Harris campaign after just two weeks, penning a scathing letter to Pennsylvania party leaders in August. In her letter, she stated that she was provided “no access to necessary data on Latino demographics” and lacked “infrastructure to plan events or engage the Latino community.” She added: “Please give us the tools to win, for as we all know, you do not win PA without Latinos, and you do not win the presidency without PA.”
Multiple Democratic leaders have pointed fingers at Harris’s Pennsylvania campaign manager, Nikki Lu, for the vice president’s difficulties in the state. One Democratic state official remarked that Lu was “AWOL,” while a party strategist claimed that Lu “empowers a culture” that makes elected officials feel unengaged and disrespected.
