Harris Empowers Army of Surrogates as She Ignores the Press
Vice President Kamala Harris has yet to give a proper sit-down interview with a media outlet since her ascension to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket more than a month ago. But her campaign is touting its army of surrogates as a substitute of sorts.
The campaign said it tapped more than 300 people to perform 1,500 interviews on behalf of the ticket during the Democratic National Convention last week in Chicago—a number that included delegates, elected officials, activists, local leaders and a number of “everyday Americans.”
Local TV stations were a particular focus of Harris’ surrogate operation—though new media like podcasts and streaming platforms were also targeted to get Harris’ message out to a wide audience in lieu of an interview with the candidate herself.
“The surrogate booking operation was a vital piece of the convention’s success, ensuring that the stories of our party, our people, and our nominees were seen and heard on airwaves across the nation,” said Nora Keefe, director of surrogate communications at the DNCC. “This year’s convention reached people where they are.”
Sen. Chris Murphy speaks to a TV news reporter on the convention floor before the start of the final day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The showing did little to quell the growing chorus of voices calling for Harris to sit down with a legacy news outlet—any legacy news outlet—after more than a month on the campaign trail.
She has pledged to choose the recipient and perform her first interview by this weekend, but the chatter surrounding her promised interview isn’t over which hotshot national journalist will get the honor—thank you, Lester Holt—but rather, which regional reporter might win the prized sit-down.
With the presidency dependent on a small number of votes in a few battleground states, regional journalists are the most deserving and best suited to handle the Harris interview, says one prominent swing-state news executive.
“Local news organizations are steeped in communities in all the battleground states in ways that national organizations aren’t,” Andrew Morse, the president and publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, told the Daily Beast Monday, adding that his news organization has requested interviews with both Harris and Donald Trump.
Rep. Maxwell Frost speaks with the press at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago.
Coming off a slickly produced party convention in Chicago that nailed all the superlatives—the biggest stars, the most money, the largest crowds and the best ratings—Harris now faces perhaps her greatest test yet as a presidential candidate: facing the free press.
Harris has taken heat for avoiding media appearances and interviews since her lackluster performance with NBC’s Holt in 2021, when she struggled to explain why she hadn’t visited the U.S.-Mexico border during a record surge of undocumented migrant crossings. But she has promised to give an interview by the end of the month, which is now just days away as she and her running mate, Tim Walz, embark on a bus tour of southern Georgia. At least one of her early interviews may be a joint appearance with Walz.
Harris deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told Fox News Sunday “that is going to happen”—a media interview by this weekend—but a Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson declined Monday to answer specific questions or provide guidance on when, where and how an interview would take place. While the Democratic campaign remains conspicuously mum, regional outlets are vying for first dibs.
Broadcast reporters go live during the roll call vote on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago.
Reporters who live in and cover towns and cities in swing states like Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Arizona and are intimately familiar with the issues that matter most to voters. They provide a golden opportunity for presidential candidates to speak directly to the people who will decide whether it is Harris or Trump who will be inaugurated in January.
“To me that’s the most effective way to make your case,” Morse said.
And Harris may want to prove that she’s now battle-tested and ready for a tough interview at a nonpartisan news outlet, be it national or regional. As Pulitzer-prize winning columnist M.L. Elrick of the Detroit Free Press told the Daily Beast: “If you’re ready, step into the lion’s den.”
The Free Press is the largest newspaper in Michigan, which Trump very narrowly won in 2016 and lost handily in 2020.
“If she wants to prove that she’s ready to be the most powerful person in the world and has nothing to fear, she should give her first interview to the toughest reporter she can find,” Elrick said. “Whether that’s from a local news outlet or a national news outlet.”
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