Kamala Harris’ office has had a staggering 91.5 percent turnover rate since she became vice president, an investigation from government watchdog organization Open The Books (OTB) revealed on Monday. Of the 47 staff members hired when Harris took office in 2021, only four reportedly remained in her employment as of March 2024.
The report comes as Biden’s X account announced he will “stand down” from his reelection campaign and “fully support” Harris as the new nominee. OTB utilized U.S. Senate disclosures to obtain records from the vice president’s office, including 2021 and 2024 payrolls.
“Chaos reigns on the vice president’s staff,” wrote OTB founder Adam Andrzejewski.“Our auditors at OpenTheBooks quantified an extraordinarily high 91.5-percent staff turnover rate.”
Payrolls provide further insight into the “staff exodus” in Harris’ office. As The Atlantic reported in October 2023, Harris’ communications director, national security adviser, chief of staff, and numerous aides left within a year and a half of her taking office in January 2021.
“Furthermore, the turnover chaos isn’t getting better. In the trailing 12-month period, 24 staffers left — that’s almost half the employees,” Andrzejewski wrote.
OTB’s investigation also revealed budget discrepancies and a lack of transparency from Harris’ office. As Andrzejewski said, “Kamala Harris, Office of Vice President, is committed to the opacity of its payrolls and all other office information.”
When OTB filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for Harris’ staff payroll in September 2021, a spokesman reportedly declined the request and claimed the vice president’s office was not subject to FOIA. When OTB replied with a request for any transparency Harris’ office could provide, the spokesman said Harris did “not have any information to share at this time.”
“The VP’s rejection makes her the least transparent elected office holder in the country,” Andrzejewski wrote in a 2021 Forbes article detailing the interaction. “Citizens ought to be concerned that the person next in line for the presidency is so unwilling to disclose how she spends their money.”
OTB’s investigation also revealed an over $2 million discrepancy in Harris’ allocation of taxpayer dollars.
“We calculated that for VP Harris’s 28 staff listed in the Senate report, the 2021 salaries added up to $2,334,223,” Andrzejewski wrote. But the vice president’s office “got $5 million for 23 full time staff in 2021 and requested over $6 million for 27 full time staff in 2022.”
Harris’ office reportedly refused to answer any questions from OTB regarding this inconsistency. OTB says its analysis reflects the dysfunction widely reported in the corporate media, which he says have called Harris’ office a “revolving door” where there’s been a “‘staff exodus’ of key aides ‘heading for the exits.’”
Staffers in Harris’ office have reported a toxic work environment since 2021, when The Washington Post spoke with 18 individuals in Harris’ orbit. Descriptions ranged from “uncomfortable” to “soul-destroying.”
“One of the things we’ve said in our little text groups among each other is what is the common denominator through all this and it’s her,” former Harris aide and Democrat strategist Gil Duran told the Post. Back in 2013, after just five months of working for Harris, he quit. “Who are the next talented people you’re going to bring in and burn through and then have [them] pretend they’re retiring for positive reasons.”
Others said Harris blamed staff for her lack of preparation.
“It’s clear that you’re not working with somebody who is willing to do the prep and the work,” a former anonymous staffer told the Post. “With Kamala you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So you’re constantly sort of propping up a bully and it’s not really clear why.”
