President Biden on Tuesday named Julie Chávez Rodríguez because the marketing campaign supervisor for his re-election effort, elevating a senior adviser and the highest-ranking Latina within the White House to one of the crucial intense and scrutinized jobs in American politics.
Ms. Chávez Rodríguez, 45, a veteran of the Obama administration and of Vice President Kamala Harris’s political orbit, additionally labored on Mr. Biden’s 2020 presidential marketing campaign earlier than changing into director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. She is the granddaughter of Cesar Chávez, the long-lasting labor chief.
Here are 5 issues to know in regards to the choice of Ms. Chávez Rodríguez:
She has navigated Bidenworld …
Mr. Biden has a small circle of shut aides, a few of whom have identified him for years. Breaking into that world could be a problem, and plenty of Democrats count on that key advisers on the White House will oversee the operation.
But a number of Democrats mentioned that Ms. Chávez Rodríguez had impressed Mr. Biden, 80, and his high advisers, including that she was usually seen as a reliable staff participant with robust political relationships.
She “didn’t start off as a Biden person, but she’s always been an honest broker,” mentioned Cristóbal Alex, who labored on the 2020 Biden marketing campaign and within the White House. In each locations, he mentioned, some got here to embrace the slogan “in Julie we trust.”
She has not managed a marketing campaign earlier than, a departure from the résumés of some previous presidential marketing campaign managers who had run congressional races or had been steeped in celebration committee work.
But she was a deputy marketing campaign supervisor on the 2020 Biden marketing campaign. At the White House, she dealt often with governors, mayors and different state and native leaders and led emergency response coordination efforts.
“The ability to multitask, the ability to move on a dime, to be able to step back and sort of take in the complexity and then manage through that complexity — I can’t imagine a more challenging job than the one she’s had,” mentioned Gov. Phil Murphy, a New Jersey Democrat and the chair of the National Governors Association. “I’m not making light of what it’s like to run a presidential campaign for a second. It’s a big job. But she’s had a big job.”
… and Harris’s orbit.
She can also be intently related to Ms. Harris, who could draw specific consideration from voters due to Mr. Biden’s age.
Ms. Chávez Rodríguez, a Californian, served as Ms. Harris’s state director when she was a California senator, and on her presidential marketing campaign.
“Her deep relationships with Biden’s core team and a deep relationship with the vice president’s office, I think, makes for the ideal candidate,” mentioned Juan Rodriguez, a strategist who labored together with her (no relation, he mentioned) below Ms. Harris.
A girl of shade is now the face of Mr. Biden’s re-election marketing campaign.
During the final presidential marketing campaign, Mr. Biden at instances confronted criticism over the whiteness of his internal circle.
As he strikes now to energise core parts of the multiracial coalition that delivered him the presidency, some Democrats mentioned Ms. Chávez Rodríguez provided very important illustration on the highest ranges of American politics.
“People in the Hispanic community are feeling that,” mentioned Cecilia Muñoz, who directed the Domestic Policy Council through the Obama administration, the primary Hispanic particular person to carry that job.
She bought an early begin in political activism.
Ms. Chávez Rodríguez, who was arrested at age 9 throughout a protest, has seen her household {and professional} lives overlap.
Valerie B. Jarrett, who served as a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, recalled that Ms. Chávez Rodríguez labored on the dedication of a nationwide monument to her grandfather, however was reluctant to hitch a household photograph, citing skilled obligations. (Dolores Huerta, who labored intently with Mr. Chávez, insisted she be part of, Ms. Jarrett mentioned.)
The second demonstrated an “egoless quality, which is, let’s say, unusual oftentimes in high levels,” Ms. Jarrett mentioned.
Whether that household legacy is significant to voters is one other matter, mentioned Matthew J. Garcia, a Dartmouth professor who has written about Mr. Chávez, noting that the United Farm Workers, the union he co-founded, has misplaced clout.
“It may work with baby boomers, but the newer generation have different ideas about the U.F.W., if they have any ideas at all,” he mentioned.
Mr. Biden, nevertheless, positioned a bust of Mr. Chávez within the Oval Office.
She is strolling right into a troublesome job.
While Mr. Biden, because the incumbent, has many benefits, he additionally has clear liabilities. And in a deeply polarized nation, early surveys present a aggressive basic election race.
Against that backdrop, Ms. Chávez Rodríguez should rapidly assist construct an enormous operation and stability Mr. Biden’s governing tasks with campaigning, whereas adjusting to main a marketing campaign for the primary time.
“The traditional résumé of a campaign manager for a candidate for president of the United States is usually to be white and to be male,” Ms. Muñoz mentioned. “If you’re a woman of color, you, almost by definition, have to come up through a nontraditional route. But I’ll tell you what — the president knows what she can do.”
Source: www.nytimes.com