Exclusive: Harris campaign alums launch firm to fix Democratic mistakes from 2024 and lead a ‘new generation’ of operatives

December 19, 2024 lighter

A group of former Kamala Harris staffers has formed a new grassroots agency, aiming to usher in a “new generation” of strategies they feel the Democratic Party desperately needs. Anatole Jenkins, Brandon Thompson and Jose Nunez launched Campaign Contrasts on Thursday – a Democratic operative firm targeting modern, forward-thinking tactics to scale reach and win elections for their party.

Just weeks after Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election to President-elect Donald Trump, the trio of young operatives – who advised both Harris and President Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaigns – told theGrio it was important for them to step out front to shake up the status quo, and help Democrats win in 2025 and beyond.

“We have a ton of respect for the leaders of the party. We have a ton of respect for their work, their approach. But we’ve seen what works. We’ve also seen what does not work,” says Jenkins, who served as a senior advisor to the Democratic National Committee for nearly four years.

He continued, “It was really important for us to start this firm to help campaigns, candidates, help organizations move away from the tired, one-size-fits-all approaches from over a decade ago toward new, creative strategies that connect people, that sparks energy and that drives meaningful action.”

Jenkins, Thompson, and Nunez met while working as young organizers for the Harris presidential campaign in 2019. “She brought us together, and we are so thankful for her. Because of that, I have gained brothers, quite frankly, and organizing partners,” said Jenkins.

Brandon Thompson, Jose Nunez, Anatole Jenkins, Campaign Contrasts, theGrio.com — Left to right: Co-founders of Campaign Strategies Brandon Thompson, Jose Nunez and Anatole Jenkins in 2019 while working of Kamala Harris For the People campaign. (Photo: Courtesy of Campaign Contrasts/Mori Strategies)

But after Harris’ second presidential campaign lost decisively to Trump last month – despite criticisms of the Republican presidential campaign’s poor ground game and lack of discipline – the three Harris alums believe they have the right formula to ensure the 2024 election becomes a moment where Democrats can learn from their mistakes, not repeat them.

The three millennials share 15 years of political and campaign experience, including working for the Biden-Harris administration and the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. They’ve also worked as lead organizers for statewide parties, campaigns, and organizations. Since coming together as business partners informally, they have taken on clients like the Democratic National Committee (DNC), League of Conservation Voters, and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis’s Californians for Choice.

“Anatole and Jose of Contrast Campaigns have two of the best political and organizing minds in Democratic politics. They have the experience and expertise to provide the margin of victory for any campaign,” said DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison.

Janessa Agnew, vice president of the League of Conservation Voters, said the operative trio helped the group “develop and execute the organization’s most successful member mobilization program to date.”

With the 2024 presidential election as a backdrop for where Democrats went wrong, Campaign Contrasts says the main areas Democrats must transform as a party are digital-first strategies, early investments, and developing talent that reflects the now and the future.

“Democrats consistently invest way too late” in “digital forward programs” and “traditional programs,” said Johnson, an experienced field organizer who most recently served as chief of staff in the Office of Presidential Personnel in the Biden White House.

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He explained, “Most programs and organizations, campaigns, the donors who fund them don’t even think about organizing until the summer before an election, at the earliest. At the worst, they’re talking about it in September, October, November.”

Conventional wisdom says peaking “late” helps campaigns reach voters as they’re tuning into the election, but Thompson says while there is some truth to that, “if you haven’t built a foundation to be able to scale that when it matters most, it’s just sort of going to collapse like a house of cards.”

The group also stressed the importance of the party’s moving away from overreliance on traditional paid canvassing and toward organizing, which should be the main focus.

Nunez, who also advised the DNC and led the Biden 2020 campaign’s digital organizing, noted that a lack of early investment in organizing programs makes it more “difficult for a campaign to hire talent and train personnel on the timeline that allows them to be successful.” He also stressed that in order for the Democratic Party to meet the digital-first reality of where voters are, they have to recognize that “everyone is online.”

“The way we engage people in organizing programs does have to reflect that fact in the future,” Nunez told theGrio. “Many campaigns in the last decade have struggled to update their approaches to organizing to reflect how people communicate and build community in different spaces.”

As Democrats lick their wounds following Harris’ devastating defeat to Trump, some have suggested the party move away from identity politics – something Black and Latino Democrats worry could alienate Black and Brown voters.

“I think that a big part of this company is ideally to make sure that we actually don’t do that. As a Democratic Party, and us being, ideally, a new generation of leaders here, we’re not going to run away from fighting for the things that we believe in,” Jenkins told theGrio. “We’re not going to stop fighting for the people who are part of this party or part of this country.”

Though Trump has yet to be sworn in as America’s 47th president, along with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress next year, the Democratic operatives are already strategizing for their party comeback.

Jenkins noted that Republicans’ very slim majority in the House of Representatives following this past election shows Democrats are “in fighting distance to take back the House in two years.”

“This was not a huge repudiation against the Democratic Party,” argued Jenkins, noting, however, “[they] came out and voted for [Democrats] in ways that we haven’t really seen in prior presidential election cycles.”