Former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign hired three full-time staffers this week to oversee its campaign operations in Minnesota.
According to ABC News, Ryan Doyle, who managed Keith Ellison’s campaign for attorney general, will serve as Biden’s Minnesota state director.
Corey Day, former executive director of the DFL Party, will stay on as senior adviser in Minnesota, while Misha Battiste was hired as the campaign’s coalitions director. Battiste previously worked for Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) presidential campaign and Sen. Tina Smith’s (D-MN) 2018 Senate campaign.
Preya Samsundar, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said Biden “finally stuck his head out of his basement long enough to realize that Minnesota is a key state this cycle.”
She noted that President Donald Trump’s campaign now has 1,500 staffers in the field nationally, more than double the number of staff Biden has on the ground.
“While Joe Biden might just be learning about the importance of Minnesota, Trump Victory efforts in the state have already seen more than 1,000,000 voter contacts this cycle,” said Samsundar. “Their staff has been on the ground since the early days, mobilizing volunteers and identifying support on the ground.”
Republican Senate candidate Jason Lewis said “it’s going to take a lot more than three people to offset the serious momentum the Trump campaign has here.”
“It appears the Biden campaign is starting to realize what we have known for a long time: Minnesota is in play in 2020,” Lewis said in a statement. “While the Trump and Lewis campaigns have been on the ground in Minnesota for a year, Biden’s team is only just now starting to pay attention to Minnesota, putting a trio of staffers on the ground in the state.”
He criticized his opponent, Sen. Smith, for endorsing Biden, who holds “anti-Minnesota policies.”
“Biden opposes mining on the Range, is promising to raise taxes on the middle class, refuses to be tough on China, and supports continued outsourcing that is taking away good-paying American jobs,” said Lewis. “The reality is Biden is entirely out of touch with what Minnesotans want and Tina Smith needs to say if she stands with Biden. Will she un-endorse Joe or will she double down on support of these dangerous policies and rhetoric? Minnesotans deserve an answer.”
After receiving the endorsement of Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Biden won Minnesota’s presidential primary in March with 38 percent of the vote. Trump lost the state to Hillary Clinton in 2016 by just 1.5 percentage points.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Joe Biden” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
