Biden names his state campaign director
Former Vice President Joe Biden plans to ramp up his California operation Monday by naming Jessica Mejía as the campaign’s state director, The Chronicle has learned.
Mejía recently served as Western regional director for Emily’s List, an organization that recruits and helps prochoice female Democrats run for office. She led recruitment and campaign efforts for the organization in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. Before that she was the Western regional political director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
In a statement, Mejía said that given California’s diversity,
“we need a candidate for president that can build the broadest and most powerful coalition of voters. That candidate is Joe Biden, a leader with a proven track record of bringing people together to get things done.”
Biden plans to appear at a rally in California on Nov. 14 at a stilltobe determined location, according to his campaign. However, he is not planning to attend a presidential candidates forum during the state Democratic Party’s convention Nov. 1517 in Long Beach.
Candidates who plan to take part in the forum include Sens. Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, former Texas
Rep. Beto O’Rourke and entrepreneur Andrew Yang. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been invited but has not confirmed her attendance.
Biden also didn’t attend the California Democratic Party convention in May and a Democratic National Committee meeting in August, both in San Francisco. Most of the top candidates attended both.
Biden is the last of the top five Democrats in the polls to hire a California state director, after Sanders, Warren, Harris and Buttigieg. Mejía will be based in Los Angeles, and the campaign expects to open more offices in the coming months.
Warren leads in California with 24.5% of the support among Democratic primary voters, according to the latest amalgamation of top state surveys by RealClearPolitics.com. She is closely followed by Biden at 23.5% and Sanders at 20%, with Harris at 8% and Buttigieg at 6.3%.