Kamala Harris to ‘Prepare Sunday Suppers’ in Iowans’ Homes

DES MOINES, IOWA - AUGUST 10: Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Hannah Knudsen

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is shifting her campaign strategy and focusing on Iowa, going as far as preparing “Sunday suppers” for families in the Hawkeye State in hopes of recruiting supporters.

The Harris campaign is touting a new facet of her Iowa swing, dubbed the “I feel your pain” tour. It features a series of more “intimate” meetings with families in the early caucus state, designed to show a different side of the California senator. The tour follows contentious Democrat debates, in which Harris’s competitors — namely, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) — highlighted less-than-flattering aspects of Harris’s prosecutorial record.

A Harris adviser spoke to Politico and suggested that the tour is about isolating issues that affect families day-to-day:

“It’s not about, ‘Let me talk about myself,” a Harris adviser involved in the planning told POLITICO. “It’s, ‘I understand your problems on a human level in a way that you experience them.’ Their concern is not, ‘I need broad systemic overhauls,’ it’s, ‘I can’t get a job, or I can’t pay the bills this month, or I can’t pay my student loans, or my yard is flooded.’”

“You have a fundamentally different conversation when you’re sitting around someone’s kitchen table in their home,” the adviser added.

Additionally, Harris plans to “help prepare Sunday suppers in peoples’ homes.”

She also has bigger events planned across the state as well, including a meeting with Moms Demand Action and Women for Kamala events with field organizers.

Harris’s Iowa blitz follows the presidential candidate’s declaration that she is “f*cking moving to Iowa.”

A reporter overheard the remark as Harris expressed her strategy to a colleague:

The Harris campaign tried to embrace the “oops” moment with a dash of levity:

Harris continues to face an uphill battle in national polls, failing to recapture her once-held top tier status. The most recent Economist/YouGov poll shows Harris in fifth place with just five percent support. Similarly, a Monmouth University Poll released Wednesday shows the California lawmaker tied with Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) in fifth place, with five percent support each.

Harris has a long way to go in Iowa, according to the current Real Clear Politics average. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Joe Biden (D), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Buttigieg are leading in Iowa with 23 percent, 20.3 percent, 12 percent, 11.3 percent, respectively. Harris is in fifth place with 5.3 percent support.

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