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Biden for President

ICYMI: Biden for President Announces Key Staff Hires in Colorado, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Ohio

Today, Biden for President announced key staff hires in Colorado, New Hampshire, Nebraska, and Ohio – including Obama-Biden alumni, staffers from each state and various state and local races.
 
Ernie Apreza, Colorado State Director
Ernie Apreza is a political strategist specializing in communications and community organizing and was last in Colorado in 2016 as Deputy Communications Director for the Hillary Clinton campaign. He most recently served as Communications Director for the Mayor of Seattle as the City led the nation in navigating the first COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Prior to joining the Mayor’s office, he was the Nevada State Director for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, and has been a part of several campaigns since 2012 when he worked to re-elect President Obama. 
 
Jennie Peek-Dunstone, Colorado Senior Advisor
Through the years, Jennie Peek-Dunstone has helped numerous progressive causes win and advance their cause. In the field of communications, she has been an on the record spokesperson, developed messaging material for both traditional and social media, and been the ghostwriter for numerous opinion editorials. She has also led campaigns, including increasing the Democratic majority in the State Senate as the leader of the Senate Campaign Fund. In this position, Jennie oversaw all Senate campaigns, developed polling and paid communication plans, and made strategic decisions to advance the majority. Jennie also strategically guided the Colorado Democratic Party as Executive Director during the 2010 election cycle. This included guiding candidates for offices across the state, developing strategic communications and working closely with Democratic elected officials. In the field of advocacy, Jennie has built coalitions to advance legislation at the Colorado State Capitol and led issue campaigns. Jennie, a native of Greeley, Colorado, holds a degree in public policy and political science from the University of Denver. A mom of two boys, ages 4 and 6 weeks, she lives in Evergreen with her husband, Adam, and family.
 
Khadija Katherine Haynes, Colorado Strategic Advisor
Khadija Katherine Haynes is a native of Denver and a fourth-generation Coloradoan. In addition to years of engagement in cultural arts, she has been an activator, community leader, and strategist in the Denver community. Ms. Haynes has carved a national niche as an astute and sought-after political advisor and governmental manager. She is well-known for her breadth of experience, her strong management capabilities, and her excellent leadership skills. Ms. Haynes served as Chief of Staff and Policy Director for the Colorado Senate Majority. Early in her career, she served in Governor Roy Romer’s administration as the Director of Operations.  More recently, she served as Deputy Political Director from the Bloomberg 2020 campaign in Colorado.
 
Bianka Emerson, Colorado Coalitions Director
A Colorado native, Bianka Emerson was born and raised in Denver and has spent her career working to elevate the voices of marginalized communities. Bianka has worked on campaigns at every level of government in Colorado, including Governor Jared Polis’ and Mayor Micheal Hancock’s campaign. She most recently served as Constituency Outreach Director for Micheal Bloomberg’s campaign in Colorado. Bianka has served on several community and nonprofit boards for organizations focused on advocating for those most in need.
 
Rachel Caine, Nebraska State Director
Rachel Caine is the Nebraska State Director. During the Primary, Caine served as the Biden campaign’s Colorado State Director. Previously, Caine helped the Denver Classroom Teachers Association in last year’s election flip majority control of the Denver school board to union-backed members. In 2018, Caine managed Jessie Danielson’s campaign in one of Colorado’s most competitive Senate races, helping to flip control of the state Senate to the Democrats.
 
Precious McKesson, Nebraska Political Director
Precious McKesson is a Nebraska Native, and the first Constituency Director for the Nebraska Democratic Party, as well as the Chair for the NDP Black Caucus. Her job is to ensure all citizens are civically and politically engaged focusing on voter turnout in low voting communities. Precious provides the necessary tools to ensure all communities are a part of the voting process. Precious focus this year will be increasing voter turnout, and turning CD2 Blue giving Vice President Joe Biden the electoral vote for President of the United States. Precious' biggest accomplishment is being the mother to 16yr old Taylor an honor student at Omaha North High School.
 
Avi Small, Nebraska Press Secretary
Avi Small is the Nebraska Press Secretary. Previously, Avi was the Press Secretary for Heath Mello's 2017 campaign for Mayor of Omaha, worked in the New York State Senate and at NextGen Climate. Avi also spent four campaign cycles crafting messaging for federal and state campaigns as a direct mail consultant.
 
Laura O'Neill, New Hampshire State Director
Laura O'Neill most recently served as Biden's Political Director for the Mid Atlantic region and as Deputy State Director for Biden's NH Primary campaign. Prior to joining the Biden team, Laura worked for U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen for three years in both Washington, D.C. and New Hampshire. Laura also worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and served as Director of the NH Democratic Senate Caucus. Laura is a native of Manchester, NH.
 
Scott Merrick, New Hampshire Senior Advisor
Most recently, Scott was Traveling Chief of Staff and New Hampshire State Director for Senator Amy Klobuchar's presidential campaign. Prior to those roles, Scott served as Vice President of Business Development for Athenium Analytics, a technology company based in Dover, NH.  Scott also worked for U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen for more than seven years, most recently serving as Deputy State Director. In 2004, Scott was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, where he served for five years. Scott is originally from Lancaster, NH.
 
Erin Turmelle, New Hampshire Senior Advisor to the New Hampshire Democratic Party
Erin Turmelle was most recently the New Hampshire State Director for Cory Booker's primary campaign. Prior to that, she was the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaign Director for the 2018 cycle, in which state Democrats flipped the state House, Senate and Executive Council and held both Congressional seats. A native of Stratham, NH, she has worked on campaigns in New Hampshire since 2014.
 
Donald Stokes, New Hampshire Political Director
Donald Stokes most recently was the director of Government Affairs for Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire. Previously, he was the Deputy Political Director for Cory Booker's New Hampshire Primary campaign, Director of Community Engagement for Mayor Joyce Craig and Deputy Political Director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. He is a native of Newark, NJ and a graduate of Saint Anselm College class of 2017.
 
Kelly Scully, New Hampshire Communications Director
Kelly Scully most recently served as Press Secretary and Digital Director for Senator Tom Carper. She took leave from Senator Carper's office to volunteer full-time with the campaign prior to Super Tuesday, where she served as Southern Regional Communications Director. She previously served as Minority Press Secretary for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and Digital Director for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
 
Toni Webb, Ohio State Director
Toni Webb has spent the past decade fighting for working families across the country with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. She is a graduate of Millikin University and Saint Louis University School of Law and is a veteran of dozens of political and issue campaigns. She most recently led For Our Future Ohio, Ohio’s largest permanent progressive field organization that runs issue and independent expenditure programs.Toni is on the board of LEAD Ohio, Ohio’s progressive candidate recruitment, training, and support organization, because she is deeply committed to developing and supporting new, diverse political candidates and operatives.
 
Demeatrious St. John, Ohio Strategic Advisor
Over the past twenty plus years, Deametrious has been very instrumental as a Democratic Political Operative in Ohio, serving as Campaign Advisor for Mayors and several Council Members and County Commissioners in Northeast Ohio and statewide, he served as Campaign Director to former State Representative William J. Healy II (52nd District) and Advisor to current State Representative Thomas West (49th District). He has also served as African American Outreach Director for the Ohio Democratic Party and the Obama Campaign for Change in Ohio 2008, served as Political Director to Ohio State Treasurer Kevin Boyce in 2010 and Political Advisor to Congressman John Conyers Jr. of Michigan (MI 14) from 2009-2011. Currently, Demeatrious serves as Statewide Political Outreach Advisor to Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (OH 11).
 
Alan Bannister, Ohio Political Director
Alan brings 23 years of political experience to the campaign. Alan supervised constituent affairs for 8 counties in Northwest Ohio in Governor Ted Strickland’s Office, and managed projects for Faith-Based & Community Initiatives. Alan was also a special projects manager for the City of Toledo for the past five Mayors.  Alan was the State Political Director for in 2016 and was part of the political teams in 2008 and 2012 Presidential campaigns.
 
Meredith Tucker, Ohio Deputy State Director
Meredith Tucker brings more than a decade of experience working in Ohio government and statewide and presidential elections, with an extensive background in political advising and strategic communications. Since President Obama's 2008 campaign, she has worked for the Ohio Democratic Party, the Ohio Legislature, the labor coalition We Are Ohio, and as a political consultant for candidates and elected officials throughout Ohio and across the country.
 
Most recently, she has been serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Communications for Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein. Meredith is a Lakewood, Ohio native, and an Ohio
University alumna.”
 
Colorado Politics: Joe Biden's campaign names senior Colorado staff
 
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's presidential campaign on Friday named its senior staff for Colorado as the former vice president beefs up the organization in a state considered likely to tilt his way in November.
 
Ernie Apreza, who worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 Colorado campaign, will be the campaign's state director.
 
Jennie Peek-Dunstone, a seasoned Democratic operative in Colorado, joins the campaign as senior advisor for the state.
 
In addition, the Biden campaign has named campaign and political veterans Khadija Katherine Haynes as its strategic advisor and Bianka Emerson to be coalitions director.
 
“Coloradans won't forget Trump's inability to lead our country during this pandemic, and this fall they will have the opportunity to make a change and send Joe Biden to the White House," a campaign spokesman told Colorado Politics.
 
While Biden has been leading President Donald Trump in Colorado by wide margins in recent publicly available polling and election forecasters have put the state in the blue column, both candidates' campaigns say they're treating the state — which features a marquee U.S. Senate race — as up for grabs in November.
 
Apreza, Biden's newly installed Colorado state director, was most recently communications director for Seattle's mayor as the city grappled with the country's earliest COVID-19 outbreak. Before that, he was Nevada state director for California Sen. Kamala Harris' presidential campaign.
 
In 2016, he was deputy communications director for Clinton's Colorado campaign and has prudential campaign experience stretching back to 2012 on the Obama campaign.
 
Peek-Dunstone has worked on numerous Colorado campaigns, including helming the Democratic Senate Campaign Fund and serving as executive director of the state party in 2010.
 
Her husband, Adam Dunstone, is a regional political director for the Biden campaign and held the same position ahead of the state's March presidential primary, when Biden placed second behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
 
Haynes was most recently deputy political director for Mike Bloomerg's Colorado presidential campaign. Among a wide-ranging set of jobs in the cultural and community realm, she served as chief of staff and policy director for the state Senate Democrats and was director of operations in Gov. Roy Romer's administration.
 
Emerson also worked on Bloomberg's Colorado campaign, as constituency outreach director. She held positions on Gov. Jared Polis and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock's campaign and has served on numerous community and nonprofit boards, with a focus on orgniztoins advocating for those most in need, the campaign said.
 
Jill Biden is scheduled to take part in a virtual campaign event in the state Friday afternoon to tour a union training facility and discuss her husband's economic recovery plan for working families — her second online visit to Colorado in recent months.
 
Clinton carried Colorado's nine electoral votes by about 5 percentage points four years ago, a smaller margin than the wins posted in the two previous presidential elections by Democrat Barack Obama, and the state's electorate appears to have shifted even further toward the Democrats in the years since.
 
[…]
 
Nebraska News Channel: Biden Campaign Off and Running in Nebraska, All Eyes on Omaha's Electoral Vote
 
With Election Day less than four months away Joe Biden's presidential campaign, backed by former Senator Bob Kerrey and a new ground game, is ramping up in Nebraska with eyes trained on one of the state’s five electoral votes.
 
On Friday (today) Kerrey will be laying out Biden’s infrastructure plans including good-paying union jobs and clean energy, according to the former Vice-President’s campaign. Kerrey will be joined by State Senator Wendy DeBoer, and two members of Omaha’s IBEW Local 22 for a midday roundtable discussion.
 
Kerrey endorsed Biden last year when Biden was struggling to break through a crowded field of Democratic candidates including Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and Elizabeth Warren.
 
At the time Biden was also fighting accusations from President Donald Trump that Biden and his son Hunter were involved in corruption in the Ukraine.
 
Kerrey told News Channel Nebraska that while the Biden family’s Ukraine connections were a "significant distraction” he was backing Biden because he was the best bet to defeat Trump, was well prepared to hit the grounds running and understands grief and healing through a lifetime of great personal loss. Kerrey said he trusts Biden.
 
Along with Kerrey’s roundtable, News Channel Nebraska has learned that Team Biden is also announcing the top three members of its Nebraska campaign, led by State Director Rachel Caine who has been leading Biden’s efforts in Colorado.
 
She’ll be joined by the Nebraska Democratic Party’s Precious McKesson. According to Biden’s campaign, McKesson’s focus will be increasing voter turnout in low voting neighborhoods to help win the Omaha area’s electoral vote from the 2nd Congressional District. After years of Republican control President Obama captured it in 2008 but the GOP took it back in both 2012 and 2016.
 
Avi Small will serve as the Biden campaign's Nebraska press secretary. He worked for Heath Mello’s unsuccessful bid for mayor of Omaha in 2017.
 
WMUR: Manchester native Laura O’Neill heads experienced Biden for President NH leadership team
 
Joe Biden’s New Hampshire leadership team for the push to the general election brings together five experienced political operatives with deep roots in Democratic politics.
 
WMUR has learned that Biden for President on Friday will announce that Manchester native Laura O’Neill is the state director of its general election organization and has been joined by Scott Merrick as senior adviser; Erin Turmelle as senior advisor to the New Hampshire Democratic Party; Donald Stokes as political director; and Kelly Scully as communications director.
 
The Biden campaign said the Granite State leadership team is up and running with O’Neill, Merrick and Turmelle in place and working remotely, and Stokes and Scully set to join near the end of July.
 
As in 2016 and several prior presidential elections, New Hampshire is expected to be a closely fought battleground state. Despite having only four electoral votes, the Granite State is viewed as a key prize in general elections, especially if the nationwide race to the magic number of 270 electoral votes is closely contested.
 
Biden has led President Donald Trump in New Hampshire general election polls since late February, although by close margins, according to poling data reported by Real Clear Politics. There has not been a presidential poll of New Hampshire voters for a month, however.
 
"We are excited to have a team of Granite State experts ready to lead our campaign to victory in November," said Biden for President National States Director Jenn Ridder. "New Hampshire is a critical state in this election and we are looking forward to competing for each and every vote and supporting Democrats up and down the ballot."
 
Laura O’Neill has been with the Biden organization throughout the campaign. She most recently was Biden’s political director for the Mid-Atlantic region and previously was deputy state director of his New Hampshire primary campaign.
 
O’Neill worked for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen during 2018 and early 2019 and previously from 2013-2015, both in Washington and New Hampshire. She worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2015 and 2016, and at the State House during 2017 as director of the New Hampshire State Senate Democratic Caucus.
 
Scott Merrick, who is originally from Lancaster, was most recently traveling chief of staff and New Hampshire state director for Sen. Amy Klobuchar's presidential campaign. He previously was vice president of business development for Athenium Analytics, a technology company based in Dover.
 
Merrick worked for Shaheen for more than seven years, most recently as deputy state director. In 2004, he was elected to the New Hampshire House, serving for five years.
 
Erin Turmelle was most recently the New Hampshire state director for Sen. Cory Booker's presidential primary campaign. She was previously the state Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaign director during the 2018 cycle, in which state Democrats flipped the state House, Senate and Executive Council and held both U.S. House seats.
 
A Stratham native, Turmelle has worked on campaigns in New Hampshire since 2014.
 
Donald Stokes most recently was director of government affairs for Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire and was previously deputy political director for Booker's New Hampshire primary campaign.
 
He has also worked as director of community engagement for Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and deputy political director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Stokes is a native of Newark, N.J. and a 2017 graduate of Saint Anselm College.
 
Kelly Scully was Delaware Sen. Tom Carper’s press secretary and digital director before taking leave to volunteer full-time with the Biden campaign prior to Super Tuesday. She was southern regional communications director for the former vice president’s campaign.
 
Scully previously served as minority press secretary for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and as digital director for Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
 
The Biden campaign said that with the leadership in place, the New Hampshire campaign will continue to expand and work closely with Organize NH, the unified organizing operation for the Biden campaign and the campaigns of Shaheen, U.S. Reps. Chris Pappas and Annie Kuster and Democrats running for all offices.
 
Organize NH is headed by Liz Wester, the former state director of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign, who was named to post in early April. The party said Organize NH has held more than 250 events with more than 2,300 attendees and has recruited more than 1,800 volunteers.
 
The party also said it made its earliest launch ever of a “voter protection effort,” in early March, headed by Kelsey Klementowicz.
 
The program includes a party-run voter hotline and an informational website, and has recruited more than 1,000 ballot inspectors while holding a series of remote informational sessions.
 
On the Republican side, Trump Victory -- the combined operation of the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee -- has also been up and running for many months, headed by state director Sebastian Rougemont, who was hired for the post in January.
 
Cleveland.com: Joe Biden’s presidential campaign names Toni Webb its Ohio state director
 
WASHINGTON, D. C. - Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign on Friday announced four key Ohio hires that it hopes will help it wrest the state from Republican President Donald Trump in November.
 
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees veteran Toni Webb has been named the director of Biden’s campaign in Ohio. She most recently led For Our Future Ohio, which the Biden campaign described as Ohio’s largest permanent progressive field organization that runs issue and independent expenditure programs.
 
Meredith Tucker, a veteran of Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign who formerly worked as the Ohio Democratic Party’s communications director, is the Biden campaign’s deputy director. She has also worked for the Ohio Legislature, the labor coalition We Are Ohio, and as a political consultant for candidates and elected officials throughout Ohio and across the country.
 
Demeatrious St. John, who currently serves as Warrensville Heights Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge’s statewide political outreach advisor, is a strategic advisor to the campaign. Alan Bannister, a former special projects manager for the city of Toledo who supervised Northwest Ohio constituent affairs for former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, is the Biden campaign’s state political director.
 
Democrats say they’re optimistic they can win Ohio this year, even though Trump won the state by 8 percentage points in 2016.
 
“In Ohio, we have millions of voters that have voted for Democrats in the past,” said U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Cleveland. “They voted for Strickland, they voted for Obama twice, they voted for me, they voted for (former Ohio Gov. Dick) Celeste, they voted for Clinton twice. So, we have a lot of voters. We just need to return them to the voting patterns that they’ve been used to.”
 
“Winning the Buckeye State means speaking directly to voters who have been hurt by Trump’s broken promises and failed policies,” added Jenn Ridder, Biden’s national states director. " Joe Biden keeps his promises. That’s how he brought the auto industry roaring back to life, and it’s why our campaign has hired a tested team that will take back the battleground state of Ohio.”

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