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Kamala Harris’ campaign is bolstering its communications team, bringing in two experienced staffers from the White House for the final three-month sprint.
Ian Sams, the White House surveillance and investigations spokesman, will join Harris’ campaign in a senior spokesman role, according to two sources familiar with the move, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
And White House Deputy Communications Director Kristen Orthman is moving to the campaign to serve as a senior adviser on strategic planning.
Herbie Ziskend will take over Orthman’s role in the White House for the final months of President Joe Biden’s term, sources have confirmed.
Sams, known as a confident and punchy guy, worked on Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign. When Biden took office in 2021, he first worked at the Department of Health and Human Services on messaging related to the administration’s response to the pandemic. He moved to the White House in 2023 after Republicans regained the majority in the House of Representatives and was tasked with responding to GOP and special counsel investigations.
Orthman’s resume includes former Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid. Elizabeth Warren2020 bid and the Democratic National Committee before joining the administration in 2023.
The moves reflect an increasing shift in focus and resources from the White House to the campaign since Harris replaced Biden last month. Sams and Orthman join an already deep communications team in Wilmington that has had to clash in recent weeks with the vice president’s own top press aides, Brian Fallon and Kirsten Allen.
With the departure of senior adviser Anita Dunn earlier this month, White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt and Ziskend, both of whom work for Barack Obama, are expected to lead the West Wing communications business until the end of Biden’s term.