Racism And Sexism Help End Kamala Harris' Presidential Campaign
Part I of II
Senator Kamala Harris announced last week she was suspending her 2020 presidential campaign, because of low poll numbers and financial pressures.
Unsurprisingly, this announcement came on the heels of a coordinated weekend media blitz of a leaked resignation letter by Kelly Mehlenbacher, a disgruntled staffer, who had unsurprisingly left Harris' campaign to work with former New York City Mayor and billionaire, Michael Bloomberg on his newly announced candidacy.
Harris had announced in early November there would be widespread layoffs and an intense focus on Iowa so Ray Charles could see from the grave that the campaign was in trouble.
Pundits, news publications and political junkies treated Mehlenbacher's letter like a smoking gun, which detailed how horrible of a work environment Harris created blaming Harris' lack of leadership, focus and clear vision on how to win for the current state of affairs.
Mehlenbacher laid Harris' issues at the feet of the leadership (Campaign chairwoman Maya Harris and Campaign manager Juan Rodriguez), without detailing what role she may have played in the demise of the campaign as Director of State Operations.
Mehlenbacher's job was to make sure the campaign was run efficiently by planning, executing, monitoring, evaluating, improving and correcting the systems and processes over time so the campaign could grow and scale as the candidate moved closer to the actual race. Only well-funded campaigns even have this position which is why Mehlenbacher may have cut her losses and bolted to Bloomberg's campaign because that well-paid, position was about to be over.
Aside from the curious case of Mehlenbacher, what began as a promising U.S. presidential campaign ended with a whimper and the resignation letter was just the final nail in the campaign coffin of a Black woman constantly dogged by racism and sexism.
At a dinner party, I learned of the resignation letter and a friend asked me what my thoughts were. After reading it, I said I'm never surprised by a Black woman being undermined by a disgruntled white woman at work, especially when times get tough.
Yes, the campaign had problems, debate performances were uneven and voters needed more clarity on Harris' health care plan, which she failed to communicate clearly.
No, you cannot blame the ultimate failure of the campaign on the resignation letter.
However, who wrote it, how it was received and used, played a significant role in the end of the campaign.
The willingness of people to immediately take the word of a disgruntled staffer over a campaign manager and chairwoman is telling. Mehlenbacher didn't say anything in the letter anyone who has spent time working on or covering a political campaign doesn't already know. When you run out of money, hard decisions must be made and when you fail to deliver i.e., raise enough money or put efficient processes in place, then sometimes what you may have planned is no longer viable.
What she wrote isn't a smoking gun, but simply status quo when it comes to political campaigns. The weight given that letter by the media was astonishing and the willingness to accept that Harris couldn't lead a political staff let alone a presidential campaign was interesting.
Three of Senator Bernie Sanders' top strategists left his 2020 campaign, citing creative differences the week after he launched his campaign in February and nada. No coordinated media blitz about how his campaign was over then or in October when the 78-year-old suffered a heart attack.
One disgruntled white woman essentially says, "I'm mad at Kamala because my job is harder than usual, life isn't fair and the people in charge won't do what I tell them to do," and game over?
It wasn't just the letter. It was also the idea that the letter was the final straw when folks have been coming for Harris over her racial identity and career as a prosecutor from the jump.
Continue Next Week.
This article was written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., entertainment and culture editor for NNPA/Black Press USA. Nsenga is also founder & editorin- chief of the award-winning news blog The Burton Wire, which covers news of the African Diaspora. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.
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