The campaign of Kamala Harris, the lone Caribbean American still with a chance of winning the Democratic Party’s bid to become president of the United States, appears to be sputtering.
Harris, a U.S. senator from California whose father is Jamaican, has witnessed a dramatic fall in recent political polls. After a promising start to the campaign to challenge incumbent President Donald Trump, when she briefly rose to the head of a crowded Democratic field following a nationally televised debate, Harris is currently polling in low single figures in most political surveys.
According to the NBC News/WSJ Poll released late last month, Harris had dropped nine points since July.
Campaign funding is also drying up. As a result, Harris cut field staff to “skeleton” in New Hampshire late last month. Reports indicated she plans to close three of four campaign offices in the U.S. state. Campaign workers were also laid off in Maryland as part of the cost-cutting measures.
HOPE
Going into November, Harris is hoping for a strong showing in Iowa, a state which usually offers key insight into who can win the Democratic bid for president. However, her remaining staff insisted her campaign is not close to the quitting point.
“Senator Harris and this team set out with one goal - to win the nomination and defeat Donald Trump in 2020,” Nate Evans, Harris's New Hampshire spokesman told the media.
Evans explained the trimming of staff is an effort to streamline campaign resources.
“The campaign has made a strategic decision to realign resources to go all-in on Iowa, resulting in office closures and staff realignments and reductions in New Hampshire,” he said.
Several Democratic challengers have already dropped out of the campaign for president, the latest being Beto O’Rourke, a former U.S. congressman who called time on his bid late last month.
