Democratic strategists question influence of Obama-era campaign operatives in party's future

Some Democratic strategists are questioning the role campaign operatives — who are associated with former President Barack Obama's presidential campaigns — will play going forward as the Democratic Party scrambles to move forward after former Vice President Kamala Harris' loss.

"I’m sorry — I don’t want a surgeon who keeps killing patients," Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis told NBC News about the set of Obama-era campaign operatives who contributed to several modern Democratic campaigns. "It’s pretty easy to win with a guy like Obama."

Several of those who led Obama's campaigns also worked for Harris in 2024, as well as former President Joe Biden, until he dropped out and lost to President Donald Trump. Obama campaign alums Jen O'Malley Dillion and Stephanie Cutter worked on Harris' campaign. Other former Obama campaign aides, Mitch Stewart and Rufus Gifford, worked on Biden's campaign as well, NBC News reported.

DNC Finance Chair Chris Korge called out David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager and an advisor to Harris' campaign, in an interview with NBC News earlier this month. Plouffe placed blame for Harris' loss on Biden, telling authors Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that the former president "totally f----- us."

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"To blame Biden now is to shift the accountability from the people who lost the race: the consultants, the so-called gurus," Korge said during the interview. "It’s time to re-evaluate the use of consultants and bring in new forward-looking people."

"The old Obama playbook no longer works," Korge added.  

Another Democratic strategist, Mike Nellis, told NBC News that the Democratic Party had nostalgia for the Obama era, but noted that the politics have changed.

"One of the challenges the Democratic Party does have is that there is nostalgia for the Obama era, both in terms of Barack Obama being in the White House and what that meant for the country and the style of leadership that we have, but also like the style of our politics," Nellis said. "There’s been a de-evolution of our politics over the last 10 years, and it’s just a very different era."

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Nebraska Democratic Party chair Jane Kleeb detailed an anecdote about how she responded to Republican attacks with regard to transgender issues in a mayoral election in Omaha. The Democratic candidate, John Ewing, ended up beating the Republican candidate, Jean Stothert.

"I didn’t contact the Pod Save America guys or a New York press firm to say, ‘how do I handle this?’" Kleeb said. "Our team literally got into the conference room at our state party office and said, ‘Let’s throw out ideas on how we can push back on this, because we’re not going to let them take down John Ewing on this bulls--- again.’" 

Kleeb added that she wanted all the operatives at the table, and spoke out against "intraparty fighting." Another ex-Obama campaign aide, Steve Schale, defended Plouffe and called him "one of the sharpest guys around."

Chuck Rocha, a former Bernie Sanders campaign advisor, pointed out that the campaign consultants are usually locked-in with candidates before they even announce their campaigns.

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"Most of these same consultants have locked in these candidates before they ever announce, and so there’s never any opportunity for any new blood to be a part of these campaigns," Rocha said. "They’re all connected."

David Hogg, a DNC vice chair, told NBC that the party's political operatives hold on to power for too long, comparing them to several Democratic lawmakers in power. He also said young voters don't really have a memory of Obama's presidency.

"I don’t think they have one to be honest with you. That’s part of the challenge," Hogg said. "For many of these younger people who are under the age of 20, right now… they don’t remember much of what Obama talked about. They grew up in the political context of Donald Trump and him being normalized, because that was what politics was to them growing up."

After Harris lost, Plouffe, Dillion, Cutter and Quentin Fulks, all part of her campaign operation, joined the co-hosts of Pod Save America, a podcast hosted by all ex-Obama aides, to discuss what went wrong in the election.

Liberal critics accused them of gaslighting and taking no accountability for the loss.