“I left everything on the field”: Kamala Harris’s rally producer on the shocking US election results

Toronto’s Jean-Michel Picher was an important member of the Kamala Harris campaign—the lead advance producer on major rallies and events featuring everyone from Bon Jovi to the Boss to Megan Thee Stallion. Like a lot of campaign insiders, he went into election day feeling like the Democrats were well positioned to win. He even flew to DC to watch the result from what would have been Harris’s victory celebration at Howard University. Then the night fell apart. A Canadian-US citizen who grew up in Toronto, Picher has worked on campaigns for Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders and John Kerry, among others. At this point, he’s been through enough to know how to manage his disappointment. He says the Democrats have to be humble—and perhaps a little less enthused over celebrity endorsements—as they figure out what’s next.

The results were obviously not what your campaign was hoping for. Is it too early to ask what happened? I guess my knee-jerk reaction takes us back to 1992, when the Bill Clinton campaign won on a mantra of “It’s the economy, stupid.” I really think that the average person felt like choosing Donald Trump was a return to something. It’s something that I don’t understand, but they obviously believed the first Trump term was a better time than during Joe Biden’s administration.

Should Harris have talked more about her economic plan? I don’t think anybody is an antidote to Trump’s ability to conjure emotion in people, and I believe he did that. He has a special ability to convince people of things, and it appears he did so.

Is that something you were picking up on in recent weeks? No. I truly believed we were on the path to a good result and that we had won the argument. I thought that by election day Harris had introduced herself successfully to voters and made it clear that she was a candidate for change, and I thought that would win the day, especially compared to the alternative. It’s not the first time I have been on the wrong side of a presidential election vote, and I continue to learn to be cautious in my assessment of the American voter. On election day in 2004, I was on the John Kerry campaign. The powers that be within the campaign had let us know that we’d won, and it was all going to be great, and then the results came in. I was responsible for Kerry’s movements backstage and so intimately connected to that experience. It was really, really hard, and it taught me to be very emotionally cautious last night, which I was, and which has served me well. I’m gobsmacked, but I’m not in tears.

And of course this is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful 2016 run. Is it a Democrat tendency to assume they have it in the bag when the opposite is true? Oh, no. I bet that in 2008 there were a whole bunch of Republicans at John McCain’s house who thought they were going to win.

How did you spend yesterday? I woke up in Detroit after being part of the eight-city final-night live stream extravaganza concert with Bon Jovi. I had the privilege of being asked to join the Harris team for the election-night celebration at Howard University. That event was planned by someone else, so I was really a passenger. I hung out with my friends—the people I have been in the trenches with for the past few months—which was wonderful. I helped out a little bit, like, Hey, place a flag over there. It was beautiful. When the results came that we had won Washington, DC, fifteen thousand people freaked out. I understood that joy, but I feared that it was not going to carry the night.

When did you first start feeling like things weren’t going the way you wanted them to? Seeing the results come in from Georgia around 10 p.m. That is where I had headed up production on three big rallies, what I had hoped and thought were impactful rallies with Megan Thee Stallion, Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen. I truly believed we had a chance to hold Georgia, so when those numbers started to come in, I didn’t know for sure, but I felt like something might be amiss.

What was it like in the room as things started to go south? There was a palpable lack of energy in the crowd. At one point someone was like, “Can we put on a DJ to get people more excited?" I was thinking, People don’t understand what’s happening. A YMCA medley isn’t going to help us. Eventually, I decided to head back to my hotel. I wanted to focus on good things, and for me that meant coming home to Toronto to see my family.

In addition to Kerry and Harris, you have worked for Obama, Biden and Bernie Sanders. How does a Toronto UCC boy end up in the power centres of American politics? I grew up as a dual citizen and was always paying attention to the American news and presidential politics. I was a government major at Colby College in Maine, where I got involved in campaign thinking, which led me to work on actual campaigns. Kerry was the first big one. My role there was junior. Sort of a fly on the wall.

What did your more recent job, as head of Harris’s advance team, entail? I don’t run the entire operation—specific events will get assigned to me, and from that point I handle the vision and implementation. So I’ll get a call like, Hey, Jean-Michel, please fly to Atlanta and produce a rally for Kamala Harris on this day in this area. This is generally with four or five days notice. We’ll go to the place, figure out the location and work with the production team we have hired to organize things like stages, light, sound, banners. I create the place, and then there is a parallel operation inviting and managing the crowd, managing the press.

Is there an event that was particularly hard to pull off? I would say the Springsteen rally last week was extremely challenging. A big part of it is that you get an instruction to produce an event in a particular area, which may not be the place with all of the facilities. In Georgia we were in DeKalb County. Imagine you’re doing an event of this scale in Toronto and you’re saying, “Okay, so we could do it at Scotiabank or Budweiser Stage,” but the campaign is saying, “No we have to be in Halton Hills.” We literally found a high school football stadium and built a backstage trailer and tent universe to protect the Secret Service, Obama, Harris and Springsteen—who is wonderful but not a light lift. I am still broken.

Because despite all of your work in Georgia, you didn’t win? No, I mean like, I can’t feel my left foot. I am physically exhausted.

Is there anything to be gleaned from the Trump campaign’s approach to events? No. Not in the least. We kick ass at what we do. What we do is not why we lost. Maybe that sounds bold, but there’s no, Hey, you put 50,000 people in a stadium wrong.

From the perspective of your particular role, is there anything you wish you’d done differently? I have no regrets. I left everything on the field.

So then you weren’t the person who decided Beyoncé wasn’t going to sing? No comment. I promise I am not answering that question.

Do you think the Democrats may be realizing that celebrity ties don’t seem to be a winning strategy? I think celebrities can be complimentary, but they can’t be a pillar that you lean on. In both 2016 and 2024, a blue-collar part of the electorate didn’t feel as connected as we wanted them to, and celebrity culture doesn’t help that. The result last night makes it clear that we need to give our heads a shake and find a way to talk to the average person in a way that actually lands. Because apparently the average person is willing to embrace someone who started an insurrection. We have to be humble enough to take that in and change our compass point.

Thoughts on the upcoming Canadian federal election? I woke up this morning thinking that perhaps my friends in the Liberal party might be in a better position than they were yesterday.

Meaning that Canadians will watch what happens under Trump in the coming weeks and months and reconsider their options? I’m going to step back from the edge of this particular pond and just say that I think last night’s results will give people in Canada pause. I don’t know that it will have an impact on the election.

What’s next for you? Today I take a flight home to Toronto. I’m going to have a nap, and then I’m going to see Springsteen tonight with my wife. We saw him play after the Kerry loss. That was our second date, so I’m excited to get to do that again and just to be back in Canada. To land in YYZ and feel safe and home in Toronto. Most of the people I work with don’t have that luxury, and it’s not something we should take lightly.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.