Makes more top hires

Klobuchar makes more top hires as she ramps up her presidential bid

By ELENA SCHNEIDER

Amy Klobuchar rolled out additional top hires for her presidential bid, a sign of her intensifying effort in the sprawling 2020 field.

The Minnesota Democrat named five new staffers on Monday, as well as five senior advisers from a range of top consulting firms, according to a statement shared first with POLITICO.

Klobuchar, who raised just over $5 million in the first fundraising quarter, has hovered in the low single digits in national and early-state polling, after launching her presidential bid in Minneapolis in February. She’s cast herself as a no-nonsense pragmatist who can win in Trump country, as Minnesota trended toward Republicans in 2016. But she’s also rejected the sweeping policy proposals, like four-year free college, that have been popularized by the party’s left.

The campaign consulting team includes Pete Giangreco as a senior adviser and Fred Yang as a research adviser. Giangreco helped to elect Klobuchar in her first Senate campaign in 2006, then served on President Barack Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012. Yang is a prolific Democratic pollster, working on numerous House and Senate races.

A trio of media advisers, all hailing from GPS Impact, are also jumping on board — Roy Temple, Jay Howser and Andi Johnson. Temple, who co-founded the consulting firm, has worked on a range of Senate and gubernatorial races, including Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken. Howser and Johnson — both alums of Shorr Johnson Magnus, a Democratic ad-making firm — have also worked on a range of Senate, House and gubernatorial races.

The staff hires are Tim Hogan, communications director; Lucinda Ware, national political director; Anjan Mukherjee, research director; and Mike McLaughlin, national field director.

Before joining Klobuchar’s campaign, Hogan served as the national press secretary for The Hub Project, a coalition of progressive groups. Ware was a Democratic media consultant at SWAY, as well as South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s outreach director during his DNC chairman’s race. Mukherjee was the research director at the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, and McLaughlin managed Rep. Harley Rouda’s successful 2018 House race in Orange County, California.

The Klobuchar campaign also announced several in-state hires, including Kelsi Browning, who will serve as the campaign’s New Hampshire communications director.