Portman assembling 2016 team The moves indicate he’s getting a head start on what could be a very difficult race.

Sen. Rob Portman is enlisting battle-tested Republican operatives to help him prepare for a potentially rigorous 2016 reelection campaign in the crucial swing state of Ohio.

The Ohio Republican plans to announce Thursday that he has hired Corry Bliss, the GOP operative who helped salvage Sen. Pat Roberts’ struggling campaign last year, to head his reelection effort in 2016. He also has selected a longtime aide, Kevin Hoggatt, as his political director, and Natalie Baur, a GOP consultant with ties to donors in Ohio and Washington, as his finance director.


The trio of moves are a clear indication that Portman recognizes he could be a top target in 2016, running in a battleground state that could once again be pivotal in a presidential election. The early hires are not only a sign of how quickly Senate Republicans are moving to preserve their new Senate majority, but also of the fierce competition of talent with 24 GOP senators up for reelection and a growing crop of potential presidential contenders.

Bliss is coming off a victorious run in Kansas, where he was enlisted by now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to help stabilize Roberts’ campaign just two months before the November elections. Roberts ultimately won his race against independent Greg Orman by a surprisingly large margin — 10 percentage points — but he was forced to mount a furious comeback after polls showed him losing badly due to his unpopularity and shaky performance on the campaign trail.

In a statement, Roberts credited Bliss for helping him secure reelection.

“Corry’s discipline, political savvy, and meticulous organizational skills are unparalleled and were vital to my reelection,” Roberts said.

Bliss also ran Linda McMahon’s $50 million unsuccessful 2012 Senate race in Connecticut against Democrat Chris Murphy. In 2014, Bliss also ran the campaign for Karen Handel, the former Georgia secretary of state who lost in the crowded Republican Senate primary for the seat that GOP businessman David Perdue ultimately won in November.

The 59-year-old Portman — a former congressman, White House budget director and U.S. trade representative, who reported $5.8 million in his campaign account through the end of last year — is also enlisting a trusted political hand in Hoggatt. In addition to serving as deputy political director in Portman’s 2010 Senate race, Hoggatt also helped Portman prepare Mitt Romney and John McCain for their 2012 and 2008 presidential debates against Barack Obama.