Biden Campaign Ramps Up Communications Effort With New Hires (Exclusive)

Joe Biden’s reelection bid has hired four new experienced communications staffers, building out its campaign headquarters in Wilmington in preparation for the general election. 

The hires highlight how Biden’s campaign, after a notably slow build-up, is now ramping up its operation in anticipation of a likely rematch with former President Donald Trump.

Shea Necheles, currently the press secretary for Minnesota Senator Tina Smith, will join the campaign as Director of Strategic Communications. She previously served as deputy press secretary of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Daniel Wessel, currently the deputy communications director at the Democratic National Committee, will join the campaign as a spokesperson and strategic communications advisor. 

Seth Schuster, currently working at the Biden White House as a regional communications director, is joining Biden’s rapid response team as a spokesperson. Schuster began working for Biden during the 2020 Democratic primary and continued to work for Biden’s 2020 general election communications team.

And Brianna Stonick, currently a senior communications assistant at the White House, is joining the campaign as a communications manager.

"We are excited and fortunate to be adding four talented comms professionals to our growing team in Wilmington,” said Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign’s communications director. “This election will be a stark choice between an extreme MAGA agenda that threatens our fundamental freedoms and only benefits the super wealthy, and President Biden and Vice President Harris’ historic record of accomplishment and vision for the future to protect our freedom and build our economy from the bottom up and the middle out.”

The four are joining the Biden campaign’s initial communications team, which includes Brooke Goren as deputy communications director overseeing the campaign’s general messaging and surrogates, TJ Ducklo as a senior adviser for communications overseeing press and rapid response, Kevin Munoz as the campaign’s national spokesperson, Ammar Moussa as the director of rapid response and María Carolina Casado, who goes by Maca, as director of Hispanic media.

Biden announced his reelection campaign in April, but his operation ramped up remarkably slowly with only a handful of aides initially working for the campaign out of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C. Aides began moving to Wilmington over the summer and most Biden aides were working from the president’s hometown by Labor Day.

While Republicans are currently in the midst of a primary campaign, Trump is the overwhelming favorite, and few of his Republican primary opponents have shown any ability to cut into his hold on the Republican base. Both Biden and Trump have oriented their campaigns toward the general in recent months, highlighting just how minor both see the primary challenges against them.

Polls show a tight race between Biden and Trump.