Now that Joe Biden has moved back into the position of front-runner with recent primary wins, he is making changes to his campaign. He just hired Jen O’Malley Dillon, the former campaign manager for Beto O’Rourke, to be his new campaign manager.
Dillon also worked for the Obama campaign, although in a smaller role.
Paul Steinhauser reports at FOX News:
Biden campaign shakeup: Veteran of Beto, Obama bids tapped to take over ex-VP’s operationJoe Biden is shaking up his operation and replacing his Democratic presidential campaign manager as he tries to finish his primary fight with Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic nomination and look ahead to a general election battle ahead with President Trump.The former vice president’s campaign announced Thursday that Jen O’Malley Dillon — a veteran of Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns and who most recently served as former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign manager — will succeed Greg Schultz in steering Biden’s White House bid.Biden officials said Schultz will now focus on “organizational planning for the general election and continuing to bolster the campaign’s external outreach.”The move comes as Biden has taken a large lead over Democratic nomination rival Sanders in the crucial race for convention delegates. That’s come thanks to major victories in the South Carolina primary and the Super Tuesday states, and this week in Michigan, Missouri, and Mississippi. While Sanders – the populist senator from Vermont – remains in the race, his window to win the nomination is closing fast.
Now that the Democrats are coalescing behind Biden, it’s no surprise that people are rushing to join his team. A recent uptick in his fundraising also means there is money to be made by new staffers and consultants.
As far as campaign management goes, it sounds like there was some drama happening behind the scenes.
Marc Caputo writes at Politico:
O’Malley Dillon, 43, most recently managed Beto O’Rourke’s failed campaign for president and played a role in his endorsement of Biden in Texas, a source familiar with the campaign said. She also served as deputy campaign manager for Obama’s 2012 reelection effort and, before that, was the Democratic National Committee’s executive director during Obama’s first term. The news was first reported by the Washington Post.Schultz will remain with the campaign and “turn his focus to organizational planning for the general election and continuing to bolster the campaign’s external outreach,” according to a Biden campaign statement.While the timing of the news was a surprise to allies of the campaign, the replacement of Schultz wasn’t. The campaign had been beset with operational problems in the early stages, from poor fundraising to ground-game stumbles that led to big defeats in the first three early states.Some within the campaign questioned the pressure to blame Biden’s string of poor early state showings on the campaign manager instead of the candidate, whose lackluster debate performances and speeches haunted him in New Hampshire and Iowa, the first two early states where retail politics is a must.
I’m not sure how much good a change in campaign management will do for Biden. He is who he is and will still sound the same when he speaks on the campaign trail. He is certainly not going to improve with age.
Featured image via YouTube.
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