By Edward-Isaac Dovere
Backstage, Kamala Harris pulled aside Jahana Hayes. She’d give the congresswoman her local press boost and photo op, but first, the vice president needed to talk about why she was popping into Connecticut of all places during the final month of her 2022 midterm campaigning: Hayes wasn’t raising enough money.
Pick it up, Harris told her. National Democrats wouldn’t stick with Hayes if she didn’t help herself.
Long before she became the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris had started quietly nurturing a network of next-generation politicians – almost all women of color, many with backgrounds in the law, many who didn’t know who else was in the group. Often, that has been through check-in calls offering encouragement and advice, many of these women told CNN, though sometimes Harris will interrogate them on the specifics of campaign strategy or push them on how they’re dealing with labor or other constituencies.
She was on a running text thread with Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley. She counseled longtime friend and former aide Laphonza Butler through the frenetic weekend last fall that ended with Butler’s appointment to the Senate. She hosted a collection of Black congresswomen for a dinner at the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s residence.
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