Booker adds to campaign communications team
Sen. Cory Booker’s presidential campaign team is growing.
The New Jersey Democrat’s campaign will announce a slate of new communications hires Monday, CNN has learned — including former top staffers from EMILY’s List and the Democratic National Committee.
Julie McClain Downey, most recently the senior director of campaign communications for EMILY’s List, a group focused on electing Democratic women, has signed on as Booker’s national director of state communications. Downey brings deep knowledge of the key primary state of New Hampshire, having worked there as Hillary Clinton’s 2016 state communications director and, before that, as communications director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
McClain Downey’s husband, Sean Downey, is already working for Booker as a senior New Hampshire adviser.
The campaign will also announce a New Hampshire communications director, tapping Chris Moyer, an alum of Democrat Molly Kelly’s gubernatorial campaign. Booker is set to return to the Granite State on Friday for his second visit since announcing his candidacy, followed by a swing through Iowa on Saturday and Sunday.
Sabrina Singh, formerly deputy communications director for the DNC, will join Booker’s campaign as national press secretary. Prior to her DNC role, Singh was a regional communications director on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
And Vanessa Valdivia has been hired for a dual role, as Nevada communications director and deputy national press secretary for Spanish language media. Valdivia comes to Booker’s campaign from the office of Sen. Martin Heinrich, where she was communications director. During the 2016 election, she worked for Clinton as an organizer in Nevada leading up to the caucuses and, later, as the campaign’s Latino vote director.
To accommodate its expanding staff, Booker’s campaign recently moved in to office space in downtown Newark, N.J. One campaign aide published a video to Twitter of Booker excitedly touring the office for the first time.
