Campaign team

Booker builds out campaign team

By NATASHA KORECKI

Cory Booker bolstered his presidential campaign staff Thursday by rolling out more than a dozen new national team members, including a national policy director, a chief technology officer and a research director.

The new staffers include a human resources director and additional digital and analytics personnel with backgrounds in the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns.

News of the hires, provided first to POLITICO, comes as the New Jersey senator embarks on a four-day tour through the first presidential caucus state of Iowa, beginning Friday.

Amanda Perez, who worked as the policy director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, will serve as Booker’s national policy director. Jen Kim, who has worked on national campaigns to engage communities of color in elections, has signed on as Booker’s states chief of staff.

Booker’s campaign, headquartered in Newark, N.J., is also adding Jenna Kruse, a former vice president of research at EMILY’s List, who will serve as Booker’s research director. Emily Norman, an Obama 2012 alum who served on analytics teams at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee, will be chief innovation officer.

Simon Vance, who previously worked from Ohio on Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign and as deputy campaign manager in Rich Cordray’s unsuccessful Ohio gubernatorial run, will be chief analytics officer. In 2016, Vance was Clinton’s national targeting director and Iowa caucus analytics director.

In addition, Booker is bringing on on Jenn Brown, the former executive director of Civic Nation, as a deputy campaign manager. Josh Wolf, a former director of operations for MoveOn.org, will serve as chief operations officer.

Other hires include: Bridgit Donnelly, who worked with early vote data for Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and Michael Fisher, as chief technology officer. Fisher previously served in roles at the DNC and on the 2016 Clinton campaign.

A new Monmouth University Poll released Thursday reported Booker at 1 percent in the crowded Democratic primary, making him one of 17 candidates winning one percent of the vote or less.