California Senator Kamala Harris on Tuesday notified her campaign staff that she's dropping out of the Democratic race for President. NBC News' Jonathan Allen says the writing was on the wall, and this announcement wasn't much of a surprise for the staffers.
"Most of her staff was aware that they were in the sorta last throws of the campaign here," said Allen. "Certainly the law few days and probably the last few weeks." He also notes that Harris was having trouble gaining traction in Iowa, New Hampshire, some of the other states, and in the key demographics she would have needed to be able to compete effectively.
In a poll released this week, Harris was at two-percent among Democratic voters and had been passed by a late entrant, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In November, Harris drastically cut her staff in New Hampshire, where the the first primary election will take place in the run for the White House.
California Governor Gavin Newsom was planning a trip to Iowa to campaign for Harris. Newsom was scheduled to spend December 14 and 15 in Iowa prior to the Harris announcement. The two politicians are longtime friends who held office in San Francisco in addition to state government.