Biden taps Equal Ground founder as state campaign director

Jasmine Burney-Clark of Ocoee was named President Joe Biden’s Florida campaign director on Friday, overseeing an operation in a state where his camp insists it will strongly compete.

Burney-Clark is the founder of the Black-led civic engagement organization Equal Ground and has previously worked on campaigns for state Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer.

She has also worked for the National NAACP, Next Gen Climate, and the Florida Civic Engagement Table.

“Life Update: I’m excited to announce that I’m taking on the biggest challenge of my life,” she wrote on X. “… We know the road ahead won’t be easy, but it will definitely be worth it!”

The campaign also brought on Phillip Jerez, the executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, and Jackie Lee, the Florida director of Biden’s 2020 campaign, as senior advisors.

“Jasmine, Phillip, and Jackie are proven operatives who have been on the front lines pushing back against Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans in Florida,” Biden national campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.

Nikki Fried, the Florida Democratic Party chair, called Florida “the battleground for all our rights and freedoms,” adding that Burney-Clark and other new campaign leaders “understand that we are the last line of defense and are ready to prove all the critics wrong. Florida is winnable and worth fighting for.”

As founder of the group Equal Ground, Burney-Clark was invited to the White House in October along with fellow board member Lee.

In an interview at the time with WLRN radio in South Florida, she praised the president’s actions to help bolster HBCUs and expanding broadband internet and called for the administration to challenge the policies of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that impacted African Americans.

“We made the plea as Floridians that [help] needs to be swift, it needs to be just and it needs to be immediate,” she told WLRN.

Florida has increasingly swung towards Republicans since former President Barack Obama won it in 2012, with then-President Donald Trump winning here by 3.4 percentage points in 2020. But the Biden campaign has indicated it would make a realistic play for the state.

Last week, DeSantis dismissed state Democrats’ 2024 chances at a press conference.

“They have a real serious habit of just doing dumb things over and over again,” DeSantis said. “… As a Republican, [that’s] great.”

Burney-Clark