So far, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has not clarified her 2020 plans or launched a presidential exploratory committee. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images 2020 Elections Gillibrand hires 3 senior staffers ahead of Iowa visit The New York Democrat is expanding her political operation ahead of an expected presidential run.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's political operation has hired three senior staffers ahead of an expected presidential campaign launch.

It's the latest sign of movement toward a 2020 campaign from the New York Democrat, who is also planning a trip to Iowa next weekend. Gillibrand has kept a close-knit circle of staff around her in the Senate, and her longtime chief of staff, Jess Fassler, has been tapped to serve as her presidential campaign manager.


The expansion of Gillibrand’s team to include wider roster of veteran Democratic operatives is the strongest signal yet that a presidential announcement is imminent.

The new hires include Dan McNally, Gillibrand’s campaign director; Meredith Kelly, the communications director; and Emmy Bengtson, the deputy communications director, who will lead Gillibrand’s digital operation, according to a person familiar with their hiring.

McNally, a Democratic ad-maker, managed Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet’s reelection campaign in 2016 and then served as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s political director. Kelly served as the communications director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the last two years, a part of the team that flipped a net 40 House seats to Democrats last year. Bengtson, a veteran of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid, worked as the digital director for California Gov. Gavin Newsom's campaign in 2018.

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“It’s a buyer’s market for staff, so to hire good top people like that, means she’s a serious contender,” said John Lapp, a Democratic media strategist.

Gillibrand is on the cusp of joining a 2020 Democratic primary field brimming with candidates in the early stages of campaign preparations. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) toured Iowa last weekend after launching a presidential exploratory committee in late December. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) kicked off a book tour this week, appearing on morning and late-night TV shows to tout her biography. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is also planning a trip to Iowa soon.

So far, Gillibrand has not clarified her 2020 plans or launched a presidential exploratory committee. But she told CNN in December that she's "definitely thinking about it, of course," adding that she "will make a decision soon."

A spokesman for Gillibrand’s campaign declined to comment.

The Albany Times-Union also reported on Thursday that Gillibrand’s campaign has signed a lease for a 5,000-square-foot space in Troy, N.Y., which would serve as the headquarters for a campaign. Troy, which is just north of Albany, was a part of Gillibrand’s House district, where she won two terms in 2006 and 2008 before her appointment to the Senate.

Ahead of her trip to Iowa, Gillibrand has also been courting on-the-ground staffers in the first presidential state. But Gillibrand did not campaign in the state during the 2018 midterms, and she isn’t yet a familiar name to Democratic voters in the first caucus state. A December Des Moines Register poll found that more than half of Iowa Democrats were not familiar with her.

John Zogby, a New York-based pollster who worked for one of Gillibrand’s House primary opponents in 2006, said that “her old House district is made-to-order” for appealing to rural voters in the Midwest. “At this stage of the game, she’s doing everything she needs to to get herself ready,” Zogby said.

In 2006, Gillibrand knocked out GOP Rep. John Sweeney by running as a Blue Dog Democrat.

"I believe Iowans will be eager to hear that part of Gillibrand’s story is her electoral success in rural New York,” said Ron Parker, the staff director of the Iowa Democratic state Senate caucus. “Iowa Democrats are hungry to hear from candidates who can compete in the small towns and rural area of America.”