For the last two years, Hillary Clinton has had a small army of energetic supporters – outside of her official office – organizing, strategizing and promoting a possible presidential run.
With Clinton’s campaign now a forgone conclusion – and an announcement expected this month – key members of these outside groups are set to move inside the nascent campaign structure, according to multiple Democrats with knowledge of the decisions but not authorized to speak on the record.
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Adam Parkhomenko, the co-founder and executive director of Ready for Hillary, a super PAC that aimed to urge Clinton to run for president, will join Clinton’s all-but-announced campaign as director of grassroots engagement, according to two Democratic sources with knowledge of the decision. The role will put Parkhomenko, who worked for Clinton’s 2008 campaign, at the head of the 2016 campaign’s grassroots effort.
The New York Times first reported the staffing moves.
Ready for Hillary, which was founded shortly after Clinton left the State Department in early 2013, has spent the last two years holding fundraising event across the country and building a sizable email list to be made available to the Clinton campaign, should they want it.
The group, which was looked at skeptically by some close to Clinton when it was founded, stuck with the mission and eventually began to impress many in Clinton’s orbit. To date, the group raised over $15 million and collected 3.6 million emails.
In addition to Parkhomenko’s hire, five other Ready for Hillary staffers – Neisha Blandin, Hans Goff, Jessica Meija, Alex Smith and Rachel Schneider – will join the campaign in similar roles to ones they filled with Ready for Hillary. More staffers from Ready for Hillary also may follow Parkhomenko and others to the campaign in the comings months.
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Ready for Hillary is not the only group Clinton’s top campaign aides are pulling from, either.
Adrienne Elrod, formerly the communications director at Correct the Record, a research and communications super PAC that aims to defend Clinton against Republican attacks, will also join the Clinton campaign as a member of the communications team. Elrod, an Arkansas native who worked for Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, has deep ties to the former secretary of state that date back to the Clinton family’s earliest days in the state.
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Elrod’s deputy at Correct the Record, Adrienne Watson, stepped into the super PACs communications director role. Correct the Record’s senior adviser, Burns Strider, announced the change in a message to the group’s supporters last week.
While Clinton has been the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination since she left the State Department in 2013, the web of outside groups have helped freeze the Democratic field while the former secretary of state kept a somewhat low profile for 2013 and some of 2014.
Some Democrats supportive of the outside efforts have quietly said the Clinton campaign somewhat owed campaign roles to the leaders of the outside groups because of their work.
Ready for Hillary, in particular, has allowed a mix of senators, big Democratic donors and longtime Clinton friends to express their support for the former secretary of state. To date, 21 Democratic senators have backed a Clinton bid through the group.
And through the Clintons have remained largely mum about the web of outside groups, they have tacitly approved the endeavors and, when asked about them, have expressed their approval.
“They are amazing,” former President Bill Clinton said of Ready for Hillary at the Iowa Steak Fry in 2014. “They’re like Energizer Bunnies. They’re just everywhere.”
