Kamala Harris is betting big on going small in Iowa
With P.V. Gopalan, an upright civil servant and doting patriarch, Kamala Harris forged one of the defining relationships of her life.The Hawkeye State became even more important after her campaign acknowledged last week it was laying off staff and slashing spending. Harris fired employees at her Baltimore headquarters, all but pulled out of New Hampshire and moved workers from Nevada and California into Iowa.
So far, Harris’ poll numbers in Iowa haven’t shown much improvement. A New York Times/Siena College poll released Friday showed her mired in the low single-digits, a world away from the upper echelon of candidates: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and former Vice President Joe Biden.
“A lot can change really fast,” said Grant Woodard, a Des Moines lawyer and Democratic campaign veteran, who worked on Kerry’s bid. “Three weeks out, I don’t think anyone in our campaign had a hope and prayer to win.” That possibility underscores the extent to which Harris’ fate is not entirely in her own hands. Even if she executes her Iowa strategy perfectly, her backers acknowledge she will still be at the mercy of waiting for her rivals to stumble.Dani Goedken, 18, was already a Harris supporter in September when she met the senator at the University of Northern Iowa, where she is a freshman studying pre-law and political communications.
Harris’ advisors say she thrives as a scrappy upstart, as she showed in her first race for district attorney in San Francisco. Facing a well-known incumbent, she set up an ironing board in front of grocery stores as a mobile desk to hand out fliers and introduce herself to voters. Now, in the smaller settings in Iowa, she is once again a tactile campaigner, warmly clasping well-wishers with both hands and fixing her gaze on them with laser focus.
“She comes off much better in person — making the eye contact, talking to us — than she does on TV,” Evans said.
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