Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign has some new faces, but most of them are from the old guard who worked with former President Barack Obama's two campaigns and with him inside his White House.
The moves come as Harris, still the presumptive Democratic nominee, edges closer to officially becoming the party's pick for the presidency, and her operation strategy will differ widely from that of President Joe Biden, reported Politico Playbook.
But many of the team members that are being pushed aside, after being criticized by Obama associates over how they managed the Biden campaign, are seeing Obama's best aides from his 2008 and 2012 campaigns being brought in to manage Harris.
So far, one of the top additions to Harris's campaign is David Plouffe, the electoral strategist who led Obama to a win in the 2008 primary against Hillary Clinton, as well as his two victories in the general elections.
Plouffe has the title of "senior advisor for path to 270 & strategy," which means he will be working to help Harris win the 270 electoral college votes she would need to win the race.
Plouffe is to report to Jen O'Malley Dillon, a former deputy White House chief of staff under Biden who moved over to his campaign in January.
The two go way back, as Plouffe hired Dillon, an aide with the John Edwards campaign, in 2008 to work as the director for Obama's battleground states campaign.
"He's going to be like a consigliere to Jen and the campaign," said David Axelrod, the chief strategist for both of Obama's campaigns, working with Plouffe, a longtime business partner.
Plouffe is already working, issuing the campaign's response to Trump's announcement that he's agreed to a Sept. 4 Fox News debate, complete "with a full arena audience."
"Donald Trump is cowardly backing out of the debate he agreed to, one just like the debate he did in June," Plouffe posted on X Saturday. "Now, he seems only comfortable in a cocoon, asking his happy place Fox to host a Trump rally and call it a debate. Maybe he can only handle debating someone his own age."
Mitch Stewart, who ran the Iowa caucuses for Obama, had Dillon's former title, battleground states director in 2012. He is moving to the Harris campaign to work as "senior advisor for battleground states" under Dillon.
Stephanie Cutter, another Harris addition, worked for both Barack and Michelle Obama, in the campaigns and in the White House, and now will become Harris' "senior advisor for message and strategy."
Harris has added some of her own people to the list. Brian Nelson, who had policy roles with her when she was a senator and California's attorney general, will be the campaign's senior adviser for policy. He also had a role at the Justice Department under Obama.
Key Obama pollster David Binder will be in charge of Harris' polling. He has worked with her for 20 years, including as the pollster when she ran for president in the 2020 race.
Jim Margolis, a key consultant for Obama's 2008 campaign and Harris' campaign in 2020, will also play an undefined role in her current campaign.
Harris's campaign has also announced that former White House Director of Communications Jen Palmieri will be a senior adviser for second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Meanwhile, several of Harris' top campaign advisers are getting more responsibilities in her run for the White House, including Sheila Nix, Brian Fallon, Sergio Gonzales, Megan Jones, Shelby Cole, and Jalisa Washington Price, reports Politico.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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