By Jeff Mason, Nandita Bose and Jarrett Renshaw
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s team is leaning toward basing his 2024 re-election campaign in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, and is considering at least three people to serve as his campaign manager, Democratic sources familiar with the matters said.
Biden, who has said he intends to run for re-election but has yet to make a formal announcement, travels regularly on weekends to Wilmington, making it a natural place for political work outside of the White House in Washington.
Philadelphia, home to Biden’s 2020 campaign operations, has also been under consideration, the sources said. Biden spent part of his childhood in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and travels regularly to the political battleground state for events.
The president is considering at least three people for the role of campaign manager, according to Democratic sources familiar with the deliberations.
The candidates include Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and a deputy campaign manager of Biden’s 2020 campaign, Jenn Ritter, who served as national states director for Biden’s 2020 campaign, and Sam Cornale, executive director of the Democratic National Committee.
Senior White House advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn are expected to be closely involved in political strategy going into the re-election as well.
Jen O’Malley Dillon, who served as Biden’s campaign manager in 2020, has ruled out returning to the role in 2024, two sources said.
Now deputy chief of staff at the White House, she will be influential in selecting who takes the reins for the 2024 race, one source said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Nandita Bose and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Alistair Bell)
