Harris adds top Obama aides to her presidential campaign team

By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has added three new senior advisers, including top strategists who guided Democratic former President Barack Obama's two winning U.S. presidential bids, a source with direct knowledge said on Friday.

David Plouffe, who was manager of Obama's presidential campaign in 2008 and a senior aide during his 2012 re-election victory, joined Harris' campaign for president as a senior adviser, the source said.

The Harris campaign is also being joined by Stephanie Cutter, a Democratic communications veteran who previously served as Obama's White House communications director and deputy campaign manager. Cutter will join the Harris campaign as senior adviser on strategy messaging.

Cutter's firm is on contract to produce the Democratic National Convention in August.

Other Obama alums joining the campaign include Mitch Stewart, who worked on both Obama campaigns and will come in as senior adviser on battleground states. David Binder, who led Obama's public opinion research operation, will expand his role on the Harris campaign to lead the opinion research operation.

All of the new hires will report to Harris campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon, another veteran of Obama's two campaigns who also who managed President Joe Biden's 2020 campaign and built his 2024 operation from the White House.

Mike Donilon, a longtime Biden adviser who left the White House to join his reelection campaign this year, will return to the White House for the final six months of Biden's presidency, a White House official said on Friday. Biden last month ended his reelection bid, paving the way for Harris' candidacy.

Donald Trump is the Republican nominee in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election. Harris on Friday secured the delegate votes needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose; additional reporting by Steve Holland; editing by Will Dunham, Rami Ayyub and Alistair Bell)