Biden Bolsters Campaign Staff in Key Battleground State of North Carolina

The Biden for President campaign is expanding its staff and operations in the key battleground state of North Carolina, where polls currently have the former vice president leading President Trump by two percentage points.

Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in North Carolina by four percentage points in 2016. Today, the Tar Heel state is one of six battleground states the former real estate developer won four years ago, but now trails in 104 days before the general election.

The other states are Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona. On Tuesday, Biden’s campaign announced Tuesday a $15 million week-long advertising campaign including television, digital, radio and print in all six.

As of Wednesday, July 22, the website FiveThirtyEight has Biden leading Trump in North Carolina, 47.6% to 45.6%, a difference of 2 percentage points.

A Real Clear Media average of polls from between June 20 and July 12 had Biden leading Trump, 47.3% to 45.3%, a difference of 2 percentage points.

And an average of polls on the website 270-to-Win has Biden leading Trump 47.4% to 44.3%, a different of 3.2 percentage points

The Biden for President and the North Carolina Coordinated Campaign responded to those numbers by hiring nine new senior directors and 114 new staffers in the state.

The group includes both North Carolina natives and former staff from various presidential primary campaigns and state and local races.

Joining State Director L.T. McCrimmon, Senior Advisor Scott Falmlen, and State Advisor and Chief of Staff Maggie Thompson, are:

• Katie Hendrickson, North Carolina Political Director

Hendrickson is a political strategist based in Raleigh, N.C.. She previously served as the N.C. political director for Mike Bloomberg during the 2020 Democratic Primary, as deputy director of Boards and Commissions in the Office of Governor Roy Cooper and on Hillary Clinton’s national advance team. 

• Maya Humes, North Carolina Communications Director

Humes previously served as a consultant for Stockton, Calif., Mayor Michael Tubbs and as his chief of staff when he was national co-chair of Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign. Beforehand, Maya served as California communications director for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign and national press secretary for NextGen America.

• Bajeyah Eaddy, North Carolina Coalitions Director

Eaddy worked as a regional political director for Biden in this year’s South Carolina primary, and since then has been his special projects director in the Great Lakes region.

• David Berrios, North Carolina Coordinated Campaign Director

Berrios most recently served as the national deputy campaign director for Organizing Together 2020. Prior to that, David worked on Cory Booker’s presidential primary campaign as the national organizing director.

• Douglas Wilson, North Carolina Senior Advisor to the Coordinated Campaign

Wilson is the founder and principal of Alexander Wilson Consulting LLC, a political and public affairs company. He has worked in political and community outreach for more than 16 years. In 2014, he served as the late Senator Kay Hagan’s state political director. Wilson also served as a regional field director for President Barack Obama’s campaign in the S.C. Democratic Primary, and as the state director of constituency outreach in S.C. during the 2008 general election.

• Amanda Clarke, North Carolina Coordinated Organizing Director

Clarke returns to North Carolina after serving as the voter registration director and deputy organizing director there in 2016. Most recently she worked on the Bloomberg campaign in Texas. 

• Owen Berger, North Carolina Coordinated GOTV Director

Berger most recently worked as North Carolina organizing director with Warren for President. Past campaigns include McCready for Congress in NC-09, Bew for Congress in NC-03, and coordinated campaigns in New Hampshire 2018, Virginia 2017, and Pennsylvania 2016. He lives in Durham, N.C.

• Alexis Hebert, North Carolina Coordinated Digital Organizing Director

Hebert is from Chapel Hill, N.C.. Hebert most recently served as the digital director for Organizing Together 2020 NC and before that as digital director for Mike Bloomberg 2020 in NC. 

• Hannah Slovut, North Carolina Coordinated Data Director

Slovut previously served as the data director at Organizing Together, and national data manager on Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s presidential campaign. Beforehand, she was a deputy field director on Angie Craig’s congressional campaign in MN-02 and the campaign manager for Phillipe Cunningham’s Minneapolis city council campaign.

According to the Biden campaign, it currently has organizers from the DNC Victory program fanning out across the state to connect with voters, while focusing on voter protection, defining and localizing Trump, and constituency outreach.

In April, the Democratic Coordinated Campaign in North Carolina made over 200,000 calls and recruited over 390 volunteers, 90% of whom had not previously made calls with the program. In June, over 1.22 million voters were called, the campaign said.

Earlier this year, North Carolina was also a part of the first wave of Battleground Build-Up 2020 investments by the party, which allows state parties to dramatically increase the immediate scale of their organizing programs by roughly doubling the amount of on-the-ground field organizers across battleground states.