Kamala Harris ran her office like a prosecutor. Not everyone liked that.
But in interviews, former staff who signed the letter acknowledged it also addressed one of Harris's perceived weaknesses as a candidate and elected official: her demanding management style. People who have worked for Harris say her interactions with staff can resemble a prosecutor prying details from a witness, asking pointed questions about everything from her schedule to policy briefings. And her cautious approach to big decisions has frustrated deputies rather than inspire them.
But interviews with 33 current and former staffers and allies show that Harris herself - and the team around her - have undergone important changes since the most difficult days of her first year as vice president. These people close to Harris, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of assessing the Democratic nominee's leadership, say she grew into the role, found policy issues that more closely aligned with her comfort areas and replaced key aides with staffers who responded better to her management style.
People close to Harris say her widely praised presidential rollout, in which she quickly locked down the Democratic nomination following Biden's withdrawal and moved to capitalize on her party's enthusiasm and energy, are testaments to her management. They also point to the growing pool of alumni who have rejoined her team, particularly this summer. At least 20 staffers who previously worked for Harris are now working on her campaign, such as policy experts Rohini Kosoglu and Ike Irby, veterans of both her Senate and vice president's office.
Those allies and staffers say that Harris's management style hasn't changed - but the circumstances have. Rather than trying to find her voice as a first-time presidential candidate or brand-new vice president, she has suddenly become the party's standard-bearer. Office disputes during the height of the pandemic are now viewed as minor frustrations as Harris fights to keep Trump out of the White House.
"Her leadership roles, the way she thinks through problems and wants to tackle them - those have been a very consistent through line," Irby said in a recent interview. "The mechanics around her - and the opportunities that those offices provide for leadership - those have changed."
"She holds herself to an incredibly high standard, and therefore, she holds her team to a really high standard," expecting their work to be thorough and complete, said Daniel Suvor, a former aide in California's attorney general's office between 2014 and 2017.
No one is claiming that Harris is perfect, but simply acknowledging that unless a black female has extraordinary talent there is no way they would ascend to the heights Harris has. She's not a part of any "old boys network" or a legacy who got a leg up simply due to birth.As I mentioned before, I know that her reticence in making decisions in the past was completely based on her fears of getting it wrong with all the attendant negative attention or opinions - like yours - sure to follow. When a person is a narcissist like Trump, he doesn't care if he gets it wrong or if he does complete 180 turns because it fits his personal or political goals. For those outside the normal power structures, those are career stoppers, if not outright killers.
I appreciate people who actually learn from their mistakes instead of blindly repeating them over and over again.