Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris hired a battery of new senior advisers to her campaign this week, moving swiftly to replace lifetime loyalists of President Biden with Democratic campaign veterans, including multiple leaders of Barack Obama’s presidential bids, according to people briefed on the campaign shifts.
David Plouffe, a top strategist on both of Obama’s presidential campaigns, joins Harris as senior adviser for strategy and the states focused on winning the electoral college. Stephanie Cutter, the deputy campaign manager for Obama’s reelection who has been working in recent months with Harris, is the new senior adviser for strategy messaging. Mitch Stewart, a grass-roots organizing strategist behind both Obama wins, will become the senior adviser for battleground states. David Binder, who led Obama’s public opinion research operation and previously worked for Harris, will expand his role on the Harris campaign to lead the opinion research operation.
All of the new hires will report to campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, another veteran of Obama’s two campaigns. She managed Biden’s 2020 campaign and built his 2024 operation from the White House before moving to Wilmington, Del., this year. Harris took control of Biden’s campaign as soon as Biden announced he would not seek reelection, an operation consisting of more than 1,300 employees and more than 130 offices. She asked O’Malley Dillon to remain in charge.
“This team is a reflection of the vice president. It brings in people who have worked for her a long time, people who have been with her for the last few years of the administration,” O’Malley Dillon said Friday. “This team represents the vice president and how she looks at building consensus and also driving toward one united front to defeat Trump.”
The specifics of the new hires were described by campaign officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal decisions. People involved said none of the current department heads would be pushed aside. Politico was the first to report Plouffe’s new role.
Harris comes to the campaign with her own brain trust who will take on more senior roles in the campaign. Sheila Nix, her campaign chief of staff, will remain in her role, as will Sergio Gonzales, her campaign strategist, and Jalisa Washington-Price and Megan Jones, her political advisers. Brian Fallon, a veteran of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign who has been working as Harris’s communications director, will be a senior communications adviser, traveling with the candidate. Shelby Cole, Harris’s 2020 digital strategist now at the Democratic National Committee, will also play an increased role.
“With 95 days to go, Vice President Harris is building on its powerhouse team that has already delivered historic grassroots support and record-breaking fundraising,” Nix said in a statement. “These seasoned and respected leaders are a part of Vice President Harris’ steadfast commitment to grow a team that will ensure we do everything possible to win this November.”
The new structure around Harris is expected to address the bifurcated nature of the Biden campaign leadership — with a campaign team in Wilmington that effectively answered to Biden’s inner circle in Washington, which advisers said sometimes slowed decision-making. The team operating out of Delaware will now be significantly larger at the top as it make the final push to Election Day, less than 100 days away.
Biden began planning his reelection bid in September 2022, with a clutch of senior White House advisers who have taken on reduced roles in Biden’s orbit. Anita Dunn, a senior White House aide, recently announced she would leave to advise a super PAC supporting Harris. Top Biden advisers Steve Ricchetti, Mike Donilon and Bruce Reed will all have smaller roles, as will Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, top advisers to Biden and his wife, Jill.
One of the biggest holes to fill is the one left by Donilon, a senior adviser to the Biden campaign who oversaw message development, advertising and polling. Quentin Fulks, the principal deputy campaign manager for Harris, will take over leadership of the campaign’s advertising program with the current paid media team. The campaign is finalizing plans to bring on additional ad-makers.
In addition to increasing Binder’s role, the Harris campaign is also bringing on Terrance Woodbury of HIT Strategies, a specialist in Black voter opinion research. Other pollsters who were working for Biden will continue in their roles. Michael Tyler will continue as campaign communications director, and deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty will continue to oversee digital advertising, social media and grass-roots fundraising.
Former Housing and Urban Development secretary Marcia L. Fudge, who recently came on board as a campaign co-chair, will expand her portfolio to include outreach and strategy. Former congressman Cedric L. Richmond will continue to be a co-chair and Harris adviser. Brian Nelson, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department, is coming over to advise Harris on policy.
Jennifer Palmieri, a communications director in the Obama White House who played the same role for Clinton’s 2016 campaign, will be a senior adviser to Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman. Palmieri worked more recently as a co-host of the Showtime documentary series, “The Circus.”
Liz Allen, who serves as undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department, will become the chief of staff to Harris’s running mate once that person is chosen in the coming days. Allen worked as Harris’s communications director when she was Biden’s running mate on the 2020 ticket. She worked for Biden when he was vice president and then served as deputy White House communications director at the end of Obama’s second term.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, will remain in her role for Harris, with an expanded portfolio focused on Arizona and Nevada, where Democrats now say they have renewed hope of defeating Trump.
Cutter, who founded political consulting firm Precision Strategies with O’Malley Dillon, has been working with the vice president for months, helping her to prepare for interviews and do media training. White House visitor records show that Cutter was cleared into the White House by the Harris team five times in the first three months of this year. She has also been overseeing the planning for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later this month, reprising a role she played in 2020.
Cutter was previously a deputy campaign manager for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, a deputy White House senior adviser to Obama, a former chief of staff to then-first lady Michelle Obama, and the communications director for John F. Kerry’s 2004 campaign, along with other roles, including a period as a host of the now-defunct CNN show “Crossfire.”
Plouffe also has a long relationship with the campaign. He advised the Biden campaign informally in 2022 when the campaign was first being put together. More recently, he has hosted a podcast about the 2024 race with Kellyanne Conway, a former adviser to Donald Trump who served as his 2016 campaign manager.
Plouffe is expected to end his consulting arrangement with the social media platform TikTok before joining the campaign.
