Philly officials criticize Kamala Harris’ campaign for overlooking their role in winning Pennsylvania: ‘They’ll blame us if we lose’

Does Kamala Harris have a Philadelphia problem?

With the election three weeks away and polls showing a razor-thin race, some Democratic elected officials and operatives in the city are voicing concerns about the effectiveness of the vice president’s efforts to turn out the vote in diverse neighborhoods in Philly, the largest city in the most important swing state.

One critique, largely coming from operatives close to Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, is that the Harris campaign isn’t working closely enough with the mayor, who in January became the first woman to hold her office after winning last year’s hyper-competitive mayoral election by running up the score with voters of color.

While Parker has been present at most major events the Harris campaign has held in Philly and the mayor said in a statement she’s been involved “since day one,” the operatives say Harris hasn’t harnessed the mayor’s potential as a surrogate and her get-out-the-vote operation.

“The Pennsylvania and national leadership of the campaign are out of touch with what things move the current electorate within the African American community,” said Will Dunbar, a Democratic strategist and lobbyist who advised Parker’s mayoral campaign.

It’s common to hear complaints about organizing and resources during the late stages of high-pressure political campaigns, and the motivations of those raising concerns can be difficult to assess. Some don’t want to be blamed if their team loses, and others may want to cause a shake-up that allows their political operation to get in on the gravy train of a presidential campaign.

But the grievances about the Harris campaign’s Philadelphia operation — aired for the first time in a Politico story Wednesday — are notable, and the Harris team appears to have begun making changes. Some operatives believe the campaign has already started to turn the ship around.

The Harris campaign pointed to what it called a historically robust operation in the state and noted a long list of recent appearances by local surrogates, including at least seven with Parker between July and September.

“Our campaign is running the largest and most sophisticated operation in Pennsylvania history,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris’ national campaign manager. “While Trump’s team still refuses to tell reporters how few staff they have in the state, we have 50 coordinated offices and nearly 400 staff on the ground.“

Rodriguez said the campaign has spent more than any previous Democratic presidential campaign on outreach to Black and Latino communities in Pennsylvania. And Harris, who visited Bucks County Wednesday, is campaigning here often, Rodriguez said, “spending 1 out of 3 days in the state in September.”

Harris inherited President Joe Biden’s campaign team when he withdrew from the race in July, making Harris the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket.

Biden’s staff said in the spring that his Philadelphia operation would be run independently from the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee. The local party has also long been criticized for a lack of coordination between the thousands of committee people tasked with getting out the vote citywide.

Much of the frustration has been directed at Harris’ Pennsylvania campaign manager, Pittsburgh native Nikkilia Lu, whose introduction to Philly politics hasn’t gone smoothly.

“She herself was not well-known in Philadelphia before she took this job, and I just get the sense that she’s just not great at interpersonal politics,” according to a source with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal campaign matters.

Lu declined to comment Wednesday.

Ryan Boyer, who heads the Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council, a coalition of more than 30 unions that is seen by many as the most potent force in Philly politics, told Politico he has “concerns about Nikki Lu,” adding, “I don’t think she understands Philadelphia.” Boyer led a press conference endorsing Harris this week.

The Harris campaign has brought on Paulette Aniskoff, who led the Pennsylvania field operation for former President Barack Obama’s 2008 victory, to work “alongside” Lu and other top staffers in the state, according to Politico.

The campaign’s senior adviser for Philadelphia is Kellan White, an experienced local operative whose father, John F. White Jr., is a major figure in Black Philly politics. Bob Brady, the longtime chair of the Democratic City Committee, declined to comment on the city party’s interactions with Lu, but praised White, saying, “Other people don’t know Philadelphia.”

“Thank god for Kellan White. He’s doing a great job,” Brady said. “He may have been hamstrung a little bit, but now he’s not and that’s really, really good for us.”

Brady said the Harris campaign has agreed to help fund “street money” — the small cash payments to the party’s thousands of committee people who work to get out the vote on Election Day — but not as much as he requested.

To win statewide, Harris needs an ideologically diverse coalition that cobbles together support from urban centers, affluent suburbs, and Rust Belt towns, which has been reflected by her travel this week. After stumping in Erie on Monday, she courted Republicans in Bucks County Wednesday, in a week where she’s appearing on several conservative media programs.

“She’s out here courting Dick Cheney and Joe Rogan,” said State Rep. Chris Rabb, who has butted heads with the city and state parties in the past. “Then she’ll get on a social media platform to address Black men. That’s not a proven way to get the votes she needs to secure victory in Pennsylvania.”

Rabb lamented a lack of coordination with local leaders who know their neighborhoods.

Other city Democrats, including State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, said they see little difference from previous election cycles in the often-complicated relationship between presidential campaigns and state and local parties. Williams, whose predominantly Black district includes Southwest Philadelphia, said the Harris team has been responsive to him and noted the campaigns’ surrogates are selected to reach particular voting blocs.

“I’m plus-60. They need a younger African American male talking to younger African American men, period,” he said. “So no disrespect to anybody else, but that’s who needs to be talking, and they’re trying to find people to talk to them.”

On the surface, little appears to be amiss in Parker’s relationship with the Harris campaign.

The mayor has greeted the vice president on the tarmac when she’s arrived at the Philadelphia International Airport, and she had a key speaking slot at a major rally in Philadelphia in August, when Harris introduced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. She was even a guest in Harris’ VIP suite at the Democratic National Convention, where she sat alongside celebrities and members of the vice president’s family.

But behind the scenes, there has been little coordination between the Parker and Harris camps, according to a source close to the Parker campaign.

One added dynamic is that two of Harris’ top three staffers in the state ― White and senior adviser Brendan McPhillips — managed the campaigns of Parker’s rivals in last year’s mayoral election, the source said. White managed the campaign of former City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart’s campaign, who finished second in the 2023 Democratic primary for mayor, while McPhillips led the campaign of former City Councilmember Helen Gym, who finished third.

“It feels a little weird that you have a mayor who won an election, and there’s nobody from her team on the [Harris] campaign about Philly,” the person said. “She is the most well-known elected official in the city of Philadelphia, the first African American woman, and I believe if you ask anybody, she’s polling very high.”

Rhynhart and Gym largely drew from wealthier, whiter areas in the mayor’s race, while Parker dominated in Black and brown neighborhoods with lower median incomes, an Inquirer analysis found.

“The whole operation is being run by two people who ran against her and lost,” said the source with the state party, adding that some of Harris’ aides are better known in Philly for “white progressive political campaigns.”

Parker “knows exactly how to motivate and get those communities to vote,” said Dunbar, who was running Parker’s mostly dormant campaign until she asked him to step down this summer. He remains an informal adviser to her.

In a statement, Parker said she’s been “directly involved in the Harris Walz campaign since day one,” including speaking at rallies, giving national television interviews, and meeting with campaign stakeholders. She said she plans to work with the Harris campaign to lead a “citywide visibility effort” over the next three weeks to get out the vote.

A Harris adviser familiar with operations in the city and state stressed that presidential and local campaigns are run differently.

”Everyone wants to be a part of something and everyone’s … nervous because the stakes are so high,” the adviser said. “Every campaign I’ve worked on, there have been complaints about yard signs and complaints that people aren’t getting everything they want from the campaign.“

There may be other reasons the campaign has not developed closer ties to Parker’s team. Many of the top staffers on Parker’s campaign joined her administration in full-time jobs that would prevent them from working on the Harris campaign.

Her political operation has been in a time of transition. In August, Dunbar stepped away from his role with the campaign, and last month she suspended her political spokesperson, Mustafa Rashed, following a domestic violence allegation. (Rashed’s wife has since withdrawn a request for a restraining order based on the allegation.)

And in early August, as Harris was vetting candidates to be her running mate, Parker’s campaign caused a stir when it posted a video that appeared to indicate Harris had selected Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Parker has also used the presidential race to raise money for her own campaign, despite not facing reelection until 2027. On at least four occasions, Parker’s campaign emailed supporters about the presidential election and asked them to contribute, including a Monday missive that asked for help fighting “back against the dangerous Trump-Vance agenda and the wave of racist attacks we know they’ve been hurling towards Kamala Harris.”

The “donate” link yielded a page to contribute to Parker’s campaign, rather than Harris’.

One Democratic consultant working on get-out-the-vote efforts noted that there are three separate events this weekend aimed at turning out Black voters — but no coordination between the disparate groups or with the campaign.

“Like, what are we doing?” said the consultant, who requested anonymity to speak freely about the Harris campaign. “There’s just a lot of energy but no coordination.”

The Harris campaign has 40 paid staffers focused on organizing in Philadelphia and field offices in areas like Brewerytown and Germantown. Last weekend, the campaign deployed 1,200 Philly area volunteers to knock on thousands of doors.

“The campaign is starting to come close to the Philly door-knocking numbers of the 2008 Obama campaign,” the Harris adviser said. “Those canvasses are overwhelmingly done by people from in and around Philadelphia — both volunteers and paid staff.”

Several surrogates and strategists chalked up criticism of the campaign to general concern about the race.

Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who has been deployed frequently by the Harris campaign and has organized several outreach events geared toward Black men, said coordination improved markedly following a meeting last month between top Harris officials and Black and Latino Democratic leaders.

“I understand why some people are critical of the campaign and the staff,” Thomas said. “But that just speaks to everybody’s anxiety and how much tension there is in this race and how legit concerned we are about saving democracy. When anxiety is high, we begin to point the finger.”

Brady, the party chair, spoke to the reason some Philly politicos might have anxiety about what will happen if Harris fails to win Pennsylvania.

“They won’t give us credit if we win,” Brady said, “but they’ll blame us if we lose.”