Staffing

Buttigieg campaign adds ex-DNC CEO to expanded senior staff

By DANIEL STRAUSS

Pete Buttigieg has hired two seasoned Democratic operatives to boost his early-state and policy teams.

Jess O’Connell has signed on as a senior adviser charged with leading the South Bend, Ind., mayor's strategy in early primary and caucus states, campaign officials told POLITICO. O’Connell served as CEO of the Democratic National Committee in 2017 and has also been executive director of EMILY’s List. Prior to that, she was the national operations director on Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and held a senior role at the Center for American Progress.

The Buttigieg campaign has also hired Sonal Shah as national policy director, as Buttigieg tries to beef up his policy bona fides. Shah is taking a leave of absence from Georgetown University, where she was the founding executive director of the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation. Shah was a deputy assistant to the president during the Obama administration and previously worked at Google, Goldman Sachs and the Clinton-era Treasury Department.

The hirings are the most high-profile additions the campaign has made since it announced raising $24.9 million in the second fundraising quarter of 2019, the highest total in the Democratic field. Buttigieg's campaign is planning to expand rapidly in the third quarter using that windfall.