Can Kamala Harris salvage a languishing 2020 bid?

[left-of-center2012]

Fri 1 Nov 2019 02.00 EDT

On Wednesday, Harris was forced to take dramatic action to salvage her beleaguered presidential campaign, slashing staff at her Baltimore headquarters and pivoting to an “all-in on Iowa” strategy with less than 100 days before the official start of the Democratic primary contest.

It’s a stunning reversal of fortunes for a presidential campaign that began with dazzling promise. Early supporters believed Harris, the 55-year-old junior senator from California, was a candidate whose time had come.

Harris’s fate now hinges on her ability to convince voters that she is best suited to the task.And with three months left before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, the window for Harris to successfully turn around her campaign is closing. Supporters and critics alike point to early stumbles and missed opportunities that muddled her message and left Harris vulnerable to criticism from moderates and progressives.

“What we’ve seen over time is that Democratic voters are generally pretty happy with their top choices,” said Sean McElwee, co-founder of the progressive analytics firm Data for Progress. “It’s not clear that the Democratic establishment is looking to find a fallback.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/01/kamala-harris-2020-campaign-trump-impeachment