Biden zeroing in on candidates to be his 2024 campaign manager

President Biden has narrowed down his choices on candidates to run his 2024 presidential reelection campaign.

While the president has yet to formally announce he’s running for a second term, he is widely expected to do so and the chatter in Democratic circles over who might lead his campaign apparatus is another sign of an impending Biden run.

Jenn Ridder, who served as national states director for Biden’s 2020 bid, is said to be a leading contender for the campaign manager job, sources tell The Hill.

Sam Cornale, the executive director of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), has also been discussed as a leading candidate, the sources say, adding that it’s an ongoing, exhaustive process and there are other candidates in the mix for that position and other top roles.

One source familiar with the selection process said both Ridder and Cornale are among candidates being considered for senior staff. Other candidates for senior staff include: Emma Brown who served as Sen. Mark Kelly’s campaign manager last year, Addisu Demissie who ran Sen. Cory Booker’s 2020 presidential campaign, Quentin Fulks who was Sen. Raphael Warnock’s campaign manager, and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a White House senior adviser who was deputy campaign manager for Biden’s 2020 campaign.

The president’s team is hoping to get their senior positions filled by April, when they’re expecting to officially launch the campaign. But some allies close to Biden warn it could take longer.

In typical Biden fashion, the search has “taken forever,” as one source put it, as the president and his team of senior advisers tries to select the right person for the position. Initial conversations for the role began several months ago, sources said.

During the 2020 cycle, Biden didn’t announce the members of his senior team until the day he announced his bid for president.

One source said the team is dealing with some logistical factors in putting together the new campaign.

Ridder is currently the executive vice president for Precision, a Washington-based firm. As Biden’s states director, she helped build campaign teams in 17 battleground states and helped coordinate strategy in each state. Prior to her work on the Biden campaign, she served as campaign manager for Montana Gov. Steve Bullock’s short-lived presidential run.

Cornale was tapped executive director of the DNC in 2021 when Jaime Harrison became the party organization’s chair.

Before taking on that role, Cornale helped manage the national committee during the 2020 and 2018 elections. Before his time at the DNC, he was the deputy chief of staff to Tom Perez when Perez served as labor secretary under former President Obama.

The selection process is particularly complicated because of Biden’s recent history with campaign managers in his 2020 presidential race.

After securing the nomination in 2020, Biden brought in Jen O’Malley Dillon to run his general election campaign, after Biden’s primary campaign manager and his team struggled to win key early states including Iowa and New Hampshire.

Biden had disappointing results in those two states before a stronger finish in the Nevada caucuses. That preceded a sweeping victory in South Carolina’s primary, which led to move victories in a string of Super Tuesday states.

The position of campaign manager is also fraught with complexities because Biden has been known to rely primarily on a close circle of longtime advisers — including Steve Ricchetti and Mike Donilon — for counsel, creating a tricky situation for whoever is hired to lead his presidential campaign.

“It’s basically decision-making by committee,” one source said of the campaign manager who will end up strategizing with Biden’s brain trust. “If you take on the position you know you’re not exactly at the top of the totem pole.”

“It has to be someone who is willing to take orders,” the source said. “And they have to be OK with that.”

Biden will also rely on Anita Dunn, his senior adviser who played a key role in 2020 and O’Malley Dillon, his deputy chief of staff, to run much of the messaging coming out of the White House.

The president also brought in Ben LaBolt, a prominent Democratic strategist who served as a longtime spokesman for former President Obama and his presidential campaigns, to run his communications shop as the campaign frenzy ramps up.

And he’ll rely on outside support from longtime advisers including Ron Klain, the recently departed chief of staff who will weigh in on key matters.

While Biden has yet to formally announce his reelection bid or his senior team, the campaign is beginning to take shape in other ways.

Reuters reported last week that the DNC will host a “national advisory board” for the campaign with key surrogates including Govs. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Phil Murphy of New Jersey.

“It’s all coming together but as usual, things run on Biden time,” one source said.

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