The chief of staff for Vice President Kamala Harris told a summit of Harvard University staff, reporters, and campaign managers Thursday that Harris ran a "pretty flawless campaign," ABC News reported.
Despite losing the popular vote for the Democrats for the first time in 20 years and having close to three times the campaign cash as President-elect Donald Trump, Sheila Nix had only positive feedback for Harris and her campaign staff.
"I think the vice president was the best position of all the possible people on our side. She had been sitting vice president for 3 1/2 years and was also part of the campaign and was ready to jump in," Nix said at a Campaign Manager Conference at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Harris became the first presidential candidate from a major party not to win a single primary when she was moved into position as the Democrats' front-runner after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Despite calls by some party leaders to hold an open primary at the Democratic National Convention, delegates voted for Harris prior to the convention.
"We obviously had a lot of things to do right away," Nix continued. "We had to get the delegates so that she could be the nominee. We had to flip the convention to her instead of President Biden. We had to merge teams and we had a 107-day campaign in front of us, and we had to move quickly."
In the end, Harris ended up spending $1.5 billion in 15 weeks, yet she was the first presidential candidate since 1932 that failed to flip a single county in the general election while also ending up $20 million in debt.
"I would posit she ran a pretty flawless campaign, and she did all the steps that [were] required to be successful," Nix added. "And I think — obviously, we did not win, but I do think we hit all the marks."