Vice President Kamala Harris‘s campaign says it will be more aggressive after her well-received debate performance against former President Donald Trump. But her overall media strategy remains much more cautious than that of her opponent.
Her campaign released a memo Thursday promising “more media engagements” — but only with local press in battleground states. She also will hold a panel discussion with the National Association of Black Journalists, an organization she turned down when invited to speak at its annual convention in July.
Harris has cultivated a relatively distant relationship with the press since becoming the Democratic nominee on July 21. She has conducted only a single interview with a major TV news outlet, which was done alongside her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN). Trump, by contrast, has spoken to reporters regularly and does extended interviews in nontraditional settings such as podcasts.
Harris has not conducted any press conferences and has only occasionally taken questions from traveling reporters, though her campaign did call for an additional debate following her solid performance against Trump, which he rejected Thursday. Trump had previously called for debates on Sept. 4 and Sept. 25, which were denied by Harris.
Tensions between Harris and the national media bubbled into public view this week thanks to a letter to her campaign from the White House News Photographers Association.
“Since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for President of the United States,
the travel pool has been reduced from thirteen to nine, an unprecedented reduction in access to a major presidential party candidate,” it reads. “Every other representative of the press pool has been allowed to continue traveling without interruption, while the four independent news photographer seats have been downgraded to one.”
The letter was endorsed by news outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Associated Press. It argues that presidential campaigns typically allow a much larger number of writers and photographers to accompany them on trips and called for a “chaser plane” to allow more media access to Harris.
WHNPA President Jessica Koscielniak said she fears that reduced access could set a new precedent.
“Photographer and video journalists need to be seen as equal members of the press corps,” she told the Washington Examiner. “The press corps isn’t complete without them.”
The group has further asked the White House Correspondents’ Association to reallocate the nine currently available seats to accommodate more still photographers.
Harris press secretary Ernie Apreza responded with his own letter, saying that Harris has always had nine media members travel with her, a number that has not changed with her presidential candidacy. The president typically has 13. Apreza wrote that a chaser plane or additional seats on Air Force 2 are “not viable” and suggested photographers travel on their own to Harris events.
While Harris is now pledging to do more interviews with news outlets in battleground states, her campaign also has spats at that level. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the Harris campaign has blocked it from all future events owing to a labor dispute involving one-quarter of the outlet’s unionized workforce. It is the second-largest newsgathering organization in battleground Pennsylvania and the largest in Pittsburgh.
Rutgers University history, media studies, and journalism professor David Greenberg says the media-averse strategy could backfire.
“Harris or the people running her campaign seem to think that a tightly controlled campaign can work,” he said. “This was a technique pioneered by Richard Nixon in 1968, and it worked for him.”
It was also used to a large extent by the Biden campaign during the pandemic-addled 2020 campaign. Still, it’s unclear if it will work for Harris’s campaign.
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“I think it’s a mistake,” Greenberg said. “She should do more spontaneous exchanges with reporters, town halls with voters, and informal conversations. People want to see past the scripted remarks. Even in the debate, where she was commanding and impressive, she mostly repeated stuff from her stump speech and talking points.”
The Washington Examiner has contacted the Harris campaign seeking comment.