Vice President Kamala Harris had a secret weapon on hand as she worked the phones in the hours after President Biden dropped his re-election bid and endorsed her.
Tony West, her brother-in-law and the chief legal officer at Uber, was with Ms. Harris in the vice president’s residence when she received the news, and he spent the afternoon helping her reach out to would-be supporters.
Since that Sunday, Mr. West has emerged as a major force behind Ms. Harris’s campaign and its record-setting fund-raising, but also as a concern for some progressives who want her to take a hard line against big business.
Ms. Harris’s campaign brought on several senior political operatives on Friday, some of whom worked on former President Barack Obama’s campaigns, to add to the team that had been assembled to re-elect Mr. Biden.
But none has the advantage of family ties like her brother-in-law, who has held top positions in the Justice Department and corporate America while advising Ms. Harris’s campaigns since she ran for San Francisco district attorney in 2003.
Persons:
Kamala Harris, Biden, Tony West, Harris, Uber, West, Harris’s, Barack Obama’s, Mr
Organizations:
Justice Department, San
Locations:
America, San Francisco