Progressive national security professionals already are angling for positions in a possible Kamala Harris administration, hoping to steer the White House in a different direction on Israel and other issues after being largely shut out under President Joe Biden.
Some progressive activists plan to draft lists of people Harris could hire at places such as the National Security Council and the Defense Department. Others are polishing their résumés, sketching out policy briefs and mapping their connections to Harris world.
The progressives’ ultimate goal is to influence American foreign policy and national security from the inside. This proved hard to do under Biden, a Democratic moderate who came to the White House with a massive stable of longstanding aides — many of whom could trace their careers back to the Clinton administration. It didn’t help that progressives have relatively few people in their ranks with significant government experience in foreign policy roles.
Their plans, however, are a sign that Harris will face pressure on both policy and personnel from her left flank if she wins.
“We haven’t had the opportunity to build as big of a bench of people with this high-level experience,” said Matthew Duss, a progressive foreign policy thinker who has advised Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and is now with the Center for International Policy. “What I’m hoping is that the vice president and her team will commit to helping us build that bench, because these are going to be the people who eventually can develop and execute and implement a foreign policy that is actually fit for this moment.”
For years, the Democratic foreign policy and national security establishment was dominated by people connected to Bill and Hillary Clinton, many of whom then worked for Barack Obama (including Hillary Clinton herself).
After the interlude of the Donald Trump years, Biden pulled in many people he knew from his time as vice president under Obama and decades in the Senate, where he was a foreign policy specialist.
Biden and his team also believed that experienced people needed to lead places such as the State Department after the personnel upheavals under Trump.
That limited the number of political appointee jobs available, including for progressives who’d amassed lists of possible hires for the Biden team.
“A lot of people volunteered for the Biden campaign thinking they’d have the opportunity to serve. Then they saw Biden pick people who had the box checked for having served in the Obama administration,” said one think tanker, who unsuccessfully sought a role on the Biden team and may seek a position with Harris.
A second think tanker said he might try to make more media appearances and arrange private briefings for people connected to the Harris campaign as a way to raise his profile among job seekers.
Both of these individuals and others were granted anonymity to be candid about issues that are sensitive and can affect their careers.
Across the Democratic Party spectrum, many would-be job seekers now reason that Harris will need new people at an array of levels, from low-ranking special assistants to Cabinet members. Some of Biden’s appointees are likely to leave, and Harris may want to signal that she’s her own president, not merely an echo of her predecessor.
Progressive activists say they know their odds of getting many positions are low given the intense competition for such jobs and the fact that it often comes down to luck and connections.
At the same time, many progressives would be happy if Harris — who so far has come across as a relatively middle-of-the-road Democrat on foreign policy — would indulge some new ideas on challenges ranging from the Israel-Hamas war to the rivalry with Beijing.
“I favor a ‘clean sweep’ — we badly need some new thinking in U.S. foreign policy,” said Lyle Goldstein, director of Asia engagement at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank, which advocates for a more restrained U.S. foreign policy.
Spokespersons for the Harris campaign declined to comment.
Progressives are not monolithic and are still, in many ways, trying to figure out their preferred approach to foreign policy. But, broadly speaking, many in this group want U.S. foreign policy to be less militarized, more invested in diplomacy and more consistent on human rights. At times, progressives have echoed concerns of people on the far right, whose leaders also have called for less U.S. military engagement abroad.
Biden’s actions have gotten a mixed reception from progressives. Some were happy to see the U.S. withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, despite the chaos involved. Many also were impressed with how the Biden team has rallied much of the world to support Ukraine as it battles a Russian invasion, while not deploying U.S. troops to the fight.
But many have watched Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war with dismay given the humanitarian fallout in the Gaza Strip. They’re also worried that widespread anti-China sentiment in Washington could lead to a violent conflict with Beijing.
Harris appears to be a typical liberal internationalist like Biden, but some progressives hope that she’ll define herself more clearly once in the Oval Office and at least be more consistent on issues such as human rights, especially for Palestinians.
A Defense Department official who identifies as a progressive said that while Harris’ public persona may not come across as overtly left-leaning, her links to many on that stretch of the political spectrum offer opportunities for her to be swayed.
“She’s friends with so many progressive people, and there’s so many progressive people in that sphere that it changes the playing field,” the official said.
Harris will likely have plenty of foreign policy slots to fill.
Several of Biden’s top aides, such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, will have already served a full, exhausting term, and even if Biden was reelected they likely would have stepped aside anyway for personal, health and other reasons. That makes it easier for Harris to name her own people to such posts.
But Harris also may keep some Biden appointees.
For one thing, despite her time in the Senate and as Biden’s vice president, she hasn’t developed a large network of her own foreign policy hands.
Some of her current top foreign policy aides worked for previous Democratic presidents. They include her current national security adviser, Philip Gordon, whom many expect will keep working for her if she steps into the presidency. Gordon, who has worked for the Biden, Obama and Clinton administrations, declined to comment.
Many lower-ranking Biden appointees may also wish to stay on, partly in hopes of moving up.
Besides, if Harris goes too far in pushing out Biden-era aides, it could seem she’s implicitly criticizing her predecessor.
There’s also the need for some continuity and stability.
“If she surrounds herself with newbies — no matter how smart and passionate — there will be overwhelming uncertainty, insecurities, blame-gaming and toxicity among the nat-sec team,” predicted a former national security official in the Obama administration.
During the run-up to the Biden presidency, progressive activists offered names to the president-elect’s team of people it should bring on board. The lists were not made public, but the people who pulled them together said relatively few of those named earned spots in the government.
Still, the plan is to try again with Harris, said Yasmine Taeb, one of the progressive activists who regularly met with Biden aides during the transition.
“We’re definitely hopeful she can bring in new blood,” she said.
A former U.S. official with links to the progressive community warned such groups to temper any expectations of landing high-profile posts precisely because there are relatively few known progressives with government experience. Having such a background matters when it comes to pushing through ideas in what can be a cumbersome bureaucracy and policymaking process.
It’s unlikely Harris will pick firebrand leftists who broadly oppose U.S. military intervention abroad for a Cabinet spot.
Still, skeptics of such hard power might be able to land in lower levels at various agencies, the former U.S. official said, and then they can learn the system and work their way up into other political appointee roles.
“You need somebody to be a deputy assistant secretary before they’re an assistant secretary and an assistant secretary before they’re an undersecretary, or have some sort of a meaningful career path that gives them some judgment,” the former official said.
There may be many career government employees with progressive leanings. But unlike political appointees, career staffers are expected to implement the policies of whoever is in the White House and are discouraged from openly discussing their personal views.
The Defense Department official attributed their ability to land a spot more to luck than to strategy because “people didn’t realize how left of center I am.”
A Harris ally said the vice president likes to hire people with a diversity of experience, and that it’s possible she’ll look well beyond Washington and its think tanks to fill national security slots.
But the ally also argued that if people — progressives included — truly want to work for a President Harris, they need to hustle now and start working for her campaign.
Even just volunteering to hand out pamphlets could show initiative that could pay off with a job offer later, especially because, unlike Biden, Harris doesn’t have legions of longstanding aides she may feel compelled to hire.
“Don’t sit there polishing your résumé waiting for January 2025,” the ally said. “People should be knocking on doors and doing everything they can to get her elected.”
