Joe Biden Campaign Expands Staff in Texas

Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden is expanding his staff by 13 members in Texas, a historically red state where Republican candidates often have an advantage.

The Democrat nominee’s latest hires include Texas’s most experienced Democrat political operatives, the Texas Tribune reported.

They include Dallas Jones, a Houston political consultant who was hired as Biden’s political director, and Jerry Philips and Jackie Uresti, who will serve as advisers to the campaign in Texas.

Uresti was Hillary Clinton’s 2016 state director, and Philips worked in Texas House politics and was the executive director of the House Democratic Campaign Committee.

Biden’s campaign has also hired Bethanie Olivan as its digital organizing director. Olivan formerly worked on Julian Castro’s presidential campaign and for the state’s Democrat Party.

The campaign also brought on Terry Bermea as an organizing director. Bermea served as the organizing director for Battleground Texas and was deputy state director for Michael Bloomberg’s presidential bid this year.

David Gins, a former U.S. Senate staffer, was hired as the state operations director.

Victoria Godinez, who worked for state Rep. Diego Bernal (D-San Antonio), was hired by the Biden campaign as a communications associate.

Biden’s campaign also hired six deputy coalition directors in the state, most with varying levels of political experience in Texas. They include Karim Farishta, Teri Ervin, Dominique Calhoun, Deidre Rasheed, Joseph Ramirez, and Lola Wilson.

Biden’s campaign now has 19 staffers in Texas after the campaign’s initial hiring announcement in August.

While Biden’s campaign has said Texas is a competitive territory, Trump’s campaign said it has a far bigger and more established presence in the historically red state.

The Trump campaign has also made some moves to beef up its presence in Texas.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is in charge of Trump’s Texas reelection effort, led a bus tour through the state this month, and another group of surrogates went on a Women for Trump bus tour over the weekend.