Harris' team is considering keeping Biden Cabinet officials if she wins and Democrats lose the Senate

WASHINGTON — If she wins in November, Vice President Kamala Harris may face a hostile, Republican-controlled Senate in no mood to confirm the senior Cabinet officials she’ll need to run her administration.

Anticipating that scenario, Harris’ team is exploring whether to keep in place some of the Biden administration officials who’ve already been confirmed by the Senate and wouldn’t need to face the gauntlet again, four people familiar with her transition planning said.

Her aides are also looking at the option of initially retaining some current officials so that she'd have more time to make staffing decisions. With only a few months to build a campaign after abruptly replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, Harris has had little time to focus on the makeup of a new administration, the people familiar with the planning said.

Harris' transition team has been identifying Cabinet members and ambassadors who might be willing to remain in their jobs after Biden’s term ends, though no formal inquiry has gone out asking them if they would stay, the sources said.

Entering office with Biden holdovers in tow carries political risk for Harris, undercutting her message that she's a change agent who would take a fresh approach to governance.

A recent NBC News poll found that 40% of registered voters worried that a Harris presidency would be a continuation of the Biden years, versus 39% who said they were worried that a second Trump term would resemble the first.

Harris wants to leave her distinct imprint on the Cabinet, though, and would like to name the first woman to run the Pentagon as part of a broader shake-up of the national security team, allies said.

Harris also might ask some Cabinet members to remain