While her role in the 2024 election has completely shifted, Vice President Kamala Harris's strategy to win hasn't moved as much.
According to people close to her campaign, Harris was always going to rely on her experience as a prosecutor while campaigning. And instead of focusing on whoever Trump picked for his VP, she was going to keep her eyes on beating the former president.
Now that she's the likely Democratic nominee, Harris' game plan will reportedly return to the theme of her 2020 campaign: "prosecutor for president."
Scripps News spoke with Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler of California, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023 after the death of longtime Sen. Dianne Feinstein. She was also a senior advisor on Harris' 2020 presidential campaign.
She discussed about Harris' plans for her campaign.
Will Harris have to refresh her policies for this new campaign?
"I think the vice president is showing up in this campaign in a really strong way, communicating with voters about who she is and what she represents," Sen. Butler said. "She is working make sure that we're focused on protecting our rights as individuals and people in a vibrant democracy. "
"What she is going to be doing I think is talking about her position as a Democrat, the vision forward for the future that brings us all together, and she will have to talk with voters about her positions from 2019. But again, I think that all of those positions are about that shared vision forward," Sen. Butler said.
"She will, I am sure, incorporate sitting down with the press and talking about what her vision is for the future as a part of the campaign. Any candidate should be willing to to do that. Every candidate should be willing to do that. And she'll get the opportunity to do that again as soon as Donald Trump decides whether or not he's going to debate her this this fall."
Should Harris shake up the campaign structure she largely inherited from President Biden?
"It is unwise for anyone to go and pretend like what they need to do is start from scratch. President Biden had built a campaign of professionals, of passionate Democratic volunteers, of people who are committed to advancing a shared vision," Sen. Butler said.
"Making wholesale changes in a structure that has been working for 18 months is just malpractice," she said.
On Harris being labeled a "DEI" candidate
Sen. Butler said she preferred to define "DEI" as "Duly Elected Incumbent," rather than as criticism of "diversity, equity, and inclusion" efforts.
"This is a woman who has dedicated her entire life to public service," Sen. Butler said of Harris. "When did we decide that we're going to send a message to our children that public service was not enough, that was not a career that we wanted people to pursue? This is a woman who has worked twice as hard in every election that she has run and in every opportunity to make sure that she was reaching out to voters of all stripes, to invite them to be a part of the process."
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Would you work for a Harris administration?
"I'm focused on winning this election right in front of us," Sen. Butler said. "Every one of us have to say at this point in time if the president the United States ask you to do something, you have to listen and take it seriously. But what I want to do right now and through the next 103 days is inspire people to get out and exercise their vote and make sure that we have a democracy to turn over the next generation."
