“People don’t want to be in a coalition with the devil,” says a Democratic source who was appalled by Harris’ embrace of Dick Cheney

Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign started out fun. It opened with the politics of joy, and a hearty dose of mockery aimed at Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance. The campaign quickly adopted a different tack — attempting to project strength and leadership, while courting support from Republicans concerned about the threat posed by Trump.

That approach culminated with Harris campaigning with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and touting an endorsement from her father, former Vice President and Iraq War architect Dick Cheney. The pitch bombed with Republicans, as Democrats’ share of moderates and independents fell and overall Democratic support crumbled, too.

Now, several Democratic operatives and insiders tell Rolling Stone they tried to convince the Harris campaign and her allies that palling around with the Cheneys was a bad idea with little upside — and could harm Harris’ support among disaffected Democratic voters. The sources requested anonymity to discuss sensitive intraparty matters.

One source close to the Harris campaign tells Rolling Stone they reached out to several staffers in and around the campaign to voice concerns about the candidate embracing Dick and Liz Cheney.

“People don’t want to be in a coalition with the devil,” says the source, speaking about Dick Cheney. They say a Harris staffer responded that it was not the staff’s role to challenge the campaign’s decisions.

A Democratic strategist says they warned key Harris surrogates and top-level officials at the Democratic National Committee that campaigning with Liz Cheney — and making the campaign’s closing argument about how many Republicans were supporting Harris — was highly unlikely to motivate any new swing voters, and risked dissuading already-despondent, infrequent Democratic voters who had supported Biden in 2020. The strategist says they also attempted to have big donors and battleground state party chairs convey the same argument to the Harris campaign.

Another Democratic operative close to Harrisworld says they sent memos and data to Harris campaign staffers underscoring how, among other things, Republican voters, believe it or not, vote Republican — and that the data over the past year screamed that Democrats instead needed to reassure and energize the liberal base and Dem-leaning working class in battleground states. “We were told, basically, to get lost, no thank you,” says the operative.

A Harris spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Following the Harris campaign’s crushing loss to Trump, there’s an argument to be made that Democrats never really stood a chance this election cycle, given Joe Biden’s unpopularity and Americans’ unhappiness with a brutal economy.

But Harris exerted far more effort attempting to appeal to Republicans, moderates, and independents than the Democratic base — which has been demoralized, in part, by Biden’s continued support for Israel’s brutal war in Gaza.

Exit polls suggest Democrats had major turnout issues; the portion of the 2024 electorate that identified as Democrat declined significantly compared to past presidential elections.

Former White House Press Secretary and MSNBC host Jen Psaki said Friday on Morning Joe that Democrats had spent too much time listening to and lifting up Republicans who left Trump and the Never Trump movement.

“The people who left the Democratic Party are the people who are going to win in the future,” she said. “The people who left Trump, the Never Trumpers — who have important voices — that is not a winning coalition.”