Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has announced who will lead its Colorado efforts for the homestretch of her race against former President Donald Trump.
Harris’ local campaign staff will include several people with ties to current and former Colorado officials as the Democratic nominee attempts to solidify the blue status of the former swing state in recent elections. Leading the staff will be state director Kayla Calkin, who previously has worked as federal campaigns director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Sophia Escobedo, a former outreach director at Personal PAC, an Illinois abortion-rights group, will serve as the general elections director. Kara Powell, who works as the press director for U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, will serve as the campaign’s deputy communications director. And Simon Tafoya, who runs a government affairs agency in Denver and previously worked for former U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, will serve as the political and coalitions advisor.
They are joining Serena Woods, who previously served as a senior advisor to Gov. Jared Polis and recently was hired as a senior advisor for Harris’ campaign.
Woods joined the campaign soon after Harris announced she’d seek to replace President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket upon his withdrawal in July. She helped lead a Zoom call of Colorado Democrats at the end of July to rally support for the then-presumptive nominee.
Harris officially won the Democratic nomination last week, ahead the Democratic National Convention that starts this Monday in Chicago, and announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Dan Kanninen, the Harris-Walz 2024 battleground states director, said in a statement that Colorado voters will have a choice between the Democrats’ “vision of the future that will strengthen our democracy, protect reproductive rights, and ensure that everyone can get by and get ahead, and Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda that would drag our country into the past.”
“This battle-tested team will make that choice clear to communities across the state and help deliver Colorado once again in November,” he said.
Biden dropped out of the race July 21 after weeks of building pressure following a disastrous debate with Trump, now the Republican nominee. Biden endorsed Harris as his replacement.
In the 2020 election, Biden beat Trump in Colorado by 13.5 percentage points.
Trump’s campaign did not respond Monday to a request for information about its Colorado staffing plans. Earlier this year, it named former state Rep. Justin Everett as state director, but his duties were later shifted to help with the planning of last month’s Republican National Convention.
A Trump spokesperson told Colorado Politics in June that the campaign would combine forces with the Republican National Committee to defeat Democrats this November, but “we do not feel obligated … to discuss the specifics of our strategy, timing and tactics with members of the News Media.”
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