Biden builds out VP team ahead of running mate announcement

Joe Biden’s campaign is assembling a team of veteran advisers and strategists to help marshal his running mate, whose announcement is considered imminent, through the fall campaign season. 

The roster includes a handful of Obama campaign and administration veterans, including Liz Allen, who will serve as the vice presidential pick’s communications director, and Karine Jean-Pierre, who was named chief of staff. 

Other names include Vince Evans, who has served for the past year as Biden’s Southern political director and will now serve as his running mate’s political director, and Evan Glover, a former associate director of advance in the Office of the Vice President who will be the candidate’s director of scheduling.

Biden has yet to publicly name his running mate, though there are signs that an announcement is coming soon. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has interviewed all the finalists for the role, and The New York Times reported on Monday that the four-person team tasked with aiding in the search has effectively dissolved. 

Biden and his campaign have offered little insight into the selection process. The former vice president previously said he expected to announce his choice in the first week of August, though he blew past that self-imposed deadline. 

A formal announcement is now expected sometime this week. 

Biden has already vowed to choose a woman as his running mate, and the list of finalists is said to include the likes of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), former national security adviser Susan Rice, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), among others.

Sheila Nix, the former chief of staff to Jill Biden in the White House, will serve as a senior adviser to the eventual running mate’s spouse. 

Others assigned to the running mate’s team include policy adviser Amanda Perez, director of scheduling and advance Ryan Montoya and press assistant Amijah Townsend-Holmes, who previously served as the executive assistant to Kate Bedingfield, one of Biden’s deputy campaign managers.