Harris and her team also discussed a way to jolt her stalled fundraising — she was on track to raise just $4 million in the quarter, sources said. The talks centered around setting a fundraising deadline and warning supporters and donors that if Harris didn’t hit a prescribed target she would need to drop out of the race.

“We needed to do something dramatic to raise the money,” said a Democratic official familiar with the discussions.

But Harris opted against both moves, deciding that the millions of dollars she would have to raise ahead of the next debate were unlikely to materialize. Ironically, a pro-Harris super PAC had secured more than $1 million to air TV ads on her behalf in Iowa, only to see Harris withdraw from the race.

Others around Harris pointed to her lack of upward movement and a desire to protect her from falling deep into debt and shield her from an embarrassing finish in Iowa as motives. They also cited an an end-of-month deadline to remove her name from the California ballot.

The shakeups and planned maneuvering are the latest in a string of what-could-have-been scenarios for a candidate who flirted with the top tier as late as midsummer. Butler, a former top labor leader in Los Angeles and a partner with Rodriguez at the San Francisco-based consulting firm SCRB, was respected by aides across the organization. She traveled frequently with Harris and, perhaps most importantly, was considered a proxy for Harris’ powerful sister, the campaign Chair Maya Harris.

Several people inside and around the campaign — including donors close to Kamala and Maya — had been advocating big changes at the top for months. But the candidate was reluctant. Instead, she divvied up broader responsibilities between her stable of senior advisers, including Butler and Harris’ Senate chief of staff, Rohini Kosoglu, as well as Emmy Ruiz and Dave Huynh.

Each oversaw various departments as part of an effort to bring order and lighten the load for Rodriguez. Butler was viewed by many inside as the obvious choice to take over. While she didn’t have experience in a similar campaign role, her stock had risen with the candidate, campaign staff and her partners. In a sign of her elevated influence, Butler has been largely managing the campaign’s wind-down at its Baltimore headquarters.

Harris, who completed a financial audit of the campaign’s dwindling finances over Thanksgiving weekend, made it clear to supporters she was pursuing the switch. The move was so anticipated that afterward some privately said they disagreed with her pulling out. Combined with news of the super PAC, they still saw a way for Harris to creep back into contention in Iowa, where she hoped to finish in the top three.

A longtime close Harris supporter mused about what could have been had the candidate pressed on despite her current middling standing in polls, calling the race “still totally up for grabs.”

”You never know what might happen, especially considering that most caucus-goers really aren’t even close to having made a final decision about who to support,” the person said, echoing the feeling of several others close to Harris who talked with her before and after her exit and shared their feelings with POLITICO. “So, pulling out at this late stage — and not three months ago, or waiting until post-Iowa — is really a head-scratcher and a disappointment.”