John Hickenlooper shakes up campaign amid staff departures

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is shaking up his presidential campaign after months of struggling to gain traction.

Hickenlooper announced late Monday the hiring of a new campaign manager, M.E. Smith, who managed Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey’s reelection in 2018. Smith also served as deputy campaign manager for Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, now a fellow 2020 competitor, and held the same role for Hickenlooper’s reelection for governor in 2014.

“M.E. has shown again and again that she knows how to lead successful campaigns in politically-difficult terrain,” Hickenlooper said. “With her extensive experience in political strategy, campaign management, and policy, I could not be more excited to have her leading the team.”

His spokeswoman, Lauren Hitt, later confirmed that she would be leaving the campaign, joining former campaign manager Brad Komar.

“Brad Komar is no longer with the campaign,” Hitt told POLITICO. “Neither is Finance Director Dan Sorenson. I will also be transitioning out over the next few weeks.”

POLITICO reported earlier Monday that Sorenson had departed Hickenlooper’s team to join former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s operation.

The Hickenlooper campaign exodus comes one day after the end of the second fundraising quarter. Hickenlooper launched his White House bid in early March, raising more than $2 million by the end of the month. But roughly half that sum came in the first 48 hours.

With two dozen candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president, Hickenlooper has struggled to break out from the bottom of the pack. The latest CNN poll released Monday shows Hickenlooper with just 1 percent support.

Hickenlooper is running as a centrist who can work across the aisle and get things done, but former Vice President Joe Biden already occupies that lane and benefits from serving alongside former President Barack Obama and having sky-high name ID.

In recent weeks, however, Hickenlooper had gotten national media coverage for telling California Democratic activists that “socialism is not the answer.” Then he explicitly called out Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and his democratic socialist views in a speech in Washington, warning that embracing the label could help “reelect the worst president in this country’s history.”

More recently, Hickenlooper was unable to seize the moment in Thursday’s debate, during which he only spoke for five minutes. Bennet, by contrast, spoke for nearly nine-and-a-half minutes.

And while he has qualified for July’s debates in Detroit, it’s unclear whether he’ll meet the Democratic National Committee’s standards — 2 percent in four qualifying polls and 130,000 donors — to make the debate stage in the fall.

Still, Smith, the new campaign manager, expressed optimism about the campaign’s future.

“It’s been my privilege to work with Governor Hickenlooper closely over the years, and I’m honored to serve him in this new role,” she said in a statement. “I’m excited to be leading the talented team that’s working to make sure we have a Washington outsider, an experienced executive, and a pragmatic progressive in the White House.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who chairs the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, had previously spoken to Hickenlooper about running for Senate. But the ex-governor and Denver mayor has insisted he’s not cut out to be a senator.

Hickenlooper could always change his mind and withdraw to challenge Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, but now he would face a crowded primary.

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