US ELECTION 2024
Here are the secrets behind selecting campaign teams for US presidential candidates
Each candidate has the support of a group of people who are key to coordinating their electoral strategy.
Election campaigns are much more than the speeches and debates we see on television; each step taken by Kamala Harris and Donald Trump responds to a pre-ordained plan. This is where the campaign teams come into play, working for months to ensure that the impact of each candidate’s move and message is as great as possible.
While Trump and Harris are the faces of the election, behind them a whole team of specialists manage everyhting, from public appearances to policy briefs. They study the electorate in depth, identifying, in their view, the most important issues and the main concerns of voters.
The team, which is made up of marketing and communication strategy professionals, economists, data analysts and many others, plans an entire journey in search of one goal: to bring their candidate to the White House.
Donald Trump's campaign team
Donald Trump has the primary support of two campaign co-directors. Chris LaCivita is one member, someone who already has experience leading winning senatorial campaigns in the last two presidential elections. He is a Republican political consultant for 20 years, a veteran of the Marines in the Persian Gulf War, a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University and president of the consulting firm Advancing Strategies, LLC. He joined Trump’s team in 2022.
Alongside him is Susie Wiles, considered the brains behind Trump’s campaign. She has been associated with the Republican Party since 1979, has been a consultant on several campaigns to date and already worked as co-chair of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign in Florida. In 2019, the Republican candidate fired her due to an information leak, although he later reappointed her as his senior advisor.
Also notable is the figure of Steven Cheung, communications director for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, whom he has already accompanied in other campaigns. One of the youngest members of the team is Karoline Leavitt, who joined Trump as press secretary in 2024 and who even ran for election to the United States House of Representatives.
The team is completed by several advisors such as Alex Bruesewitz, Taylor Budowich, Brian Jack, Corey Lewandowski, Jason Miller, Tim Murtaugh and Alex Pfeiffer.
Kamala Harris campaign team
After succeeding Joe Biden, Harris opted to rejuvenate a large part of the team. She counts on the support of her husband Douglas Emhoff and her sister Maya, as well as her prospective vice president Tim Walz, the Democratic candidate bases her campaign on two pillars.
The first of these pillars is Julie Chávez Rodríguez, campaign director of the presidential campaign. She is the granddaughter of César Chávez, founder of the United Farm Workers Union, and has previously worked with Obama and Biden.
The other key piece is Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who holds the position of campaign chairwoman. She was also the chairwoman under Biden, when she also served as deputy chief of staff at the White House. Under Obama, she was the Democratic presidential campaign’s swing states director in 2008 and deputy campaign director for his 2012 re-election campaign.
The team is completed by strategy expert David Plouffe, Democratic communicator Brian Fallon since Clinton, speechwriter Adam Frankel, and deputy campaign director Stephanie Cutter, who was Obama’s deputy director.