Kamala Harris campaign, 'hemorrhaging cash,' lays off dozens of aides

The 2020 presidential campaign of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), which is "hemorrhaging cash," is undergoing significant restructuring and laying off "dozens of aides," Politico reports.

Harris' campaign manager Juan Rodriguez in a memo Wednesday described facing "an incredibly competitive resources environment" and needing to "reduce campaign expenditures," reports Vice's Elizabeth Landers. Rodriguez, who said he would be reducing his own salary as well, announced that "many" field staff from New Hampshire, Nevada, and California will be redeployed to Iowa and that "we will reduce the size of our headquarters staff."

"These decisions are difficult but will ensure the campaign is positioned to execute a robust Iowa ground game," Rodriguez wrote. The Harris campaign raised $11.8 million in the third quarter of 2019 but spent $14.6 million, per Politico.

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Harris was polling near the front of the pack of 2020 Democratic candidates over the summer, especially after a widely-praised debate performance in which she took on former Vice President Joe Biden and his record on busing. A Quinnipiac University national survey from early July, after this debate, showed Harris earning 20 percent support, just 2 percentage points behind Biden. But her polling numbers have plunged since then, with a USA Today/Suffolk University national poll released Wednesday showing her at 3 percent support, the same amount as entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

Axios' Jonathan Swan tweeted in response to the poll, "I still don't really understand what happened to Kamala Harris' candidacy." Harris has yet to qualify for the December presidential debate.