President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is comprised of faces both old and new as he seeks a second term in the White House.
From key allies who helped propel his 2020 campaign to rising stars in the Democratic Party — and even the Hollywood executive behind hits like “Shrek” and “Beauty and the Beast” — Biden said that the individuals he tapped to lead his reelection bid will build and expand on the coalition that helped him clinch a historic victory three years ago.
“Our campaign co-chairs are hardworking public servants that have dedicated their lives to making Americans’ lives better,” Biden wrote in a statement. “I’ve been able to count on each and every one of them throughout my career, especially in the most challenging moments. Together, this team brings the expertise, leadership, and work ethic required to win this election and finish the job for the American people.”
Here’s a look at who Biden selected to run his 2024 campaign:
Reports emerged earlier this week that Rodriguez, a longtime Democratic activist and senior White House adviser, would be leading Biden’s campaign.
In his campaign announcement Tuesday, Biden hailed Rodriguez and her deputy, Quentin Fulks, as “trusted, effective leaders that know the stakes of this election and will bring their knowledge and energy to managing a campaign that reaches all Americans.”
Rodriguez, who has served as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs since the beginning of Biden’s administration, previously worked in the Obama administration and later served on the staff of then-Sen. Kamala Harris. She worked as a volunteer on Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign in Colorado and later worked on Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign before the Biden campaign hired her as a senior adviser to oversee Latino outreach.
She is also the granddaughter of famed labor leaders César Chávez and Helen Fabela Chávez. Biden, a proponent of the labor movement and admirer of César Chávez, placed a bust of the labor leader in the Oval Office.
In her White House role, Rodriguez and her staff helped state, local and tribal governments, and Puerto Rico and the other U.S. territories, with their federal government needs. That included combating COVID-19 and distributing aid from the $1.9 trillion in Biden’s coronavirus relief plan.
She has emerged as one of Biden’s most trusted advisers, nurturing relationships with state and local officials that aides believe will be helpful throughout the campaign.
She also has developed a close working relationship with Biden’s coterie of senior political advisers, including Anita Dunn and deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon, who are set to help steer Biden’s reelection effort from the White House.
Fulks, a 33-year-old Ellaville, Georgia, native, is no stranger to major campaigns. He most recently managed the successful and historically expensive reelection campaign for Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, and previously worked as senior political adviser and campaign manager for Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Fulks attended Georgia Southwestern State University before landing an internship in Rep. Steny Hoyer’s office, the Maryland Democrat who served as House Majority Leader. He also worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Emily’s List, which backs female Democratic candidates, Priorities USA, a Democratic super PAC, before joining Pritzker’s campaign, which saw the Illinois statehouse flip from Republican to Democrat. He’s also a politics fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Fulks told The Associated Press last month about the Warnock campaign’s strategy of building connections outside of Atlanta, a Democratic stronghold, with Republican-leaning voters throughout the state of Georgia.
“In a tough environment, we chose to communicate with those voters,” Fulks told the AP of the 2022 campaign. “And it set us apart, quite frankly, from the Democratic slate and even from President Biden.”
It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that without Clyburn, Biden’s 2024 campaign wouldn’t exist.
In February of 2020, Biden’s campaign was on life support after disappointing finishes in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. But Clyburn’s endorsement of the former vice president ahead of the South Carolina primary gave his floundering campaign a major boost to the Democratic nomination.
Clyburn, 82, has represented South Carolina in the House of Representatives since 1993 and is considered a power broker in the Palmetto State. He’s hosted a fish fry in the state for three decades that has become a must-attend event for Democratic hopefuls.
In an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, Clyburn called Biden’s 2024 campaign an opportunity to continue advancing his agenda.
“Look, I think that we have a tremendous opportunity now to continue what I call the ‘course correction,’” Clyburn said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” following Biden’s announcement. “I do believe that Joe Biden feels very strongly that our country got off track in our pursuit of a more perfect union, and that he is dedicated to the proposition hat we are back on track and we should continue moving forward.”
“I don’t believe this is about stopping [former President Donald] Trump, this is about continuing our pursuit of a more perfect union, and I’m glad to be a part of it,” he added.
The only unelected official on Biden’s list of campaign co-chairs, Katzenberg is a major Democratic donor and influential figure in the party.
Katzenberg, born in New York, began his career in film working for Paramount Pictures, working as an assistant to producer David V. Picker and chairman Barry Diller before becoming president of production under then-president Michael Eisner.
When Eisner left Paramount to become CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Katzenberg went with him and became chairman of Walt Disney Studios. Under his leadership, the company’s animation division saw a rebirth of critically acclaimed animated films — known colloquially as the “Disney Renaissance” — including “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “The Lion King.”
In 1994, Katzenberg founded DreamWorks with fellow Hollywood titans Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. He was credited as a producer on the smash hit “Shrek” and an executive producer on its sequel, “Shrek 2,” and received credits on DreamWorks Animation’s later films, including “Kung Fu Panda” and “How to Train Your Dragon” and their sequels.
Katzenberg was a major fundraiser for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and supported both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden’s presidential campaigns.
Much has changed for Gov. Whitmer since Biden’s last presidential campaign.
In October of 2020, one month before the election, the FBI thwarted a plot to kidnap Whitmer and overthrow the state’s government in retaliation for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A little more than two years later, Whitmer won reelection in Michigan by a historic margin and helped flip both chambers of the state’s legislature to Democratic control for the first time in nearly four decades.
Since then, Whitmer and Democrats in the legislature have codify abortion rights and passed gun safety legislation.
“President [Biden] and Vice President [Harris] have spent their first term fighting for our freedom, democracy, and more rights — not less,” she wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “But around the country, dangerous extremists are trying to take us backward. We cannot be complacent. It’s time to finish the job.”
Whitmer, a rising star in the Democratic Party who has left the door open for a future presidential run of her own, previously served as a co-chair of Biden’s inauguration and was also vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
It wouldn’t be a Biden campaign without representation from his home state of Delaware, and Blunt Rochester is one of two members of Congress from the Blue Hen State announced as a co-chair for the 2024 race.
But her home state isn’t the only thing she shares in common with the president: Blunt Rochester was also born in Pennsylvania. While Biden hails from Scranton, Blunt Rochester was born in Philadelphia, a Democratic stronghold that has proven crucial in recent elections.
Blunt Rochester worked as an intern for Tom Carper, now one of Delaware’s two U.S. Senators, when he represented the state in the House of Representatives. She later worked for Carper’s administration when he served as the state’s governor before leaving government service in 2004 to become CEO of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League.
She ran for Delaware’s at-large House district in 2016 and won, becoming the state’s first woman and first Black person to represent the state in Congress.
Blunt Rochester previously served as a co-chair during Biden’s 2020 campaign and was on the vetting committee for his running mate.
At an event last week where he signed an executive order about environmental justice, Biden hailed Duckworth as a “war hero” — perhaps underscoring the respect that the president has for the junior senator from Illinois.
Duckworth, who has represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate since 2017, served in the U.S. Army as a helicopter pilot and lost both of her legs after her Black Hawk helicopter was attacked by Iraqi insurgents.
Despite her injuries, she got a waiver to continue serving in the state’s Army National Guard and retired in 2014 as a lieutenant colonel.
Duckworth was elected to Congress in 2012 before she ran for Senate in 2016. She holds a number of historic firsts: She’s the first person born in Thailand and the first Thai American woman to be elected to Congress, the first female double amputee in the Senate and, alongside Kamala Harris, is one of three Asian American women to serve in the upper chamber.
“After a first term of historic investments in America and our working families, I'm ready to send @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris back to the White House for 4 more years,” she wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. "Let's get to work!”
Escobar was elected to Congress in 2018, becoming one of the first Latina congresswomen from Texas alongside fellow Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia.
Escobar was one of the lawmakers who welcomed President Biden to El Paso, Texas, earlier this year amid criticism that he had not visited the U.S.-Mexico border during his presidency.
“We’re in the fight of our lives — for our freedom and our fundamental rights,” she wrote on Twitter. “We need a President who will fight to defend those values and more. I’m proud to endorse @JoeBiden and so honored to join his campaign as national co-chair!”
As stated above, it wouldn’t be a Biden campaign without healthy representation from Delaware.
Coons, the junior U.S. Senator from Delaware, holds the seat that the president occupied for more than three decades in the upper chamber of Congress, winning it in a 2010 special election after Biden’s resignation to serve as vice president. (Longtime Biden ally Ted Kaufman briefly held the seat until the special election.)
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday following Biden’s announcement, Coons expressed optimism about the upcoming contest.
“I think when folks look at President Biden and his strong record, compared to the alternative, they will vote for him,” he told the outlet.
“President Trump talked about rebuilding our infrastructure. President Biden has actually gotten it done, passed a record bill to invest in rebuilding our infrastructure, a bipartisan bill,” Coons said. “President Trump talked about cutting prescription drug prices. President Biden has actually gotten it done, signing into law a bill that will reduce prescription drug prices for millions of Americans.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.