Black Kamala campaign staffers claim there was 'outright racial discrimination' and mistreatment during race

Black staffers for Kamala Harris have claimed that the campaign leadership engaged in "outright racial discrimination" as well as mistreatment after the now-defunct campaign lost the election. The accusations were revealed in a report last week.

A New York Times report revealed, "An internal survey commissioned by the Harris campaign also found that Black staff members were frustrated with campaign leaders and felt that their ideas were ignored at a rate far higher than their peers’. Some complained of outright racial discrimination."



Despite the leadership becoming aware of those results in the survey, details surrounding the campaign staffers' opinions on their employer were not made public sooner as some staffers feared for future job prospects. The report, called, "How Alarmed Harris Staffers Went Rogue to Reach Black and Latino Votes," details how some black staffers on the campaign thought "that Philadelphia’s racially diverse neighborhoods were ignored” by Harris campaign leadership.

"Black campaign staff members and political operatives said campaign leadership dismissed concerns that Democrats were taking their base for granted," the report added.

As a result of this frustration, a rogue team of campaign staffers went out to knock on as many doors in Philadelphia as they could in the days leading up to the election to push a get-out-the-vote effort in minority neighborhoods. The group met in a Dunkin Donuts in order to plot the operation they reportedly called Operation Dunkin’kirk, playing off the World War II mission that saved Allied troops trapped in France.

But the frustration with campaign leadership increased as the election got closer, to a point at which "campaign employees set up a call to talk about career opportunities with Angela Rye, a political strategist and podcast host.”

“The discussion quickly shifted as they shared their anger at how the campaign had treated them, and how underfunded and haphazard their field operations had been in several battleground states, according to a recording of the call obtained by The Times," the report states. At this point, the survey was conducted and revealed the feelings of discrimination from black staffers.

Additionally, some staff reportedly alleged that the campaign offices in Philly were "filthy and lacked basic supplies like tables, chairs, cleaning products and printers," and that black staffers at these officers had to be moved to wealthier neighborhoods for their campaign offices, further away from their assigned locations.