“I thought about a number of candidates. This is the one that ended up feeling like a right fit for the firm and a sense of what the country is looking for and what we need,” Larry Grisolano said of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg (shown). | Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images 2020 elections Obama ad-maker signs on with Buttigieg Larry Grisolano and his firm, AKPD, are joining the South Bend, Ind., mayor's 2020 campaign.

Pete Buttigieg just added major heft to his presidential campaign, picking up the advertising firm that aided Barack Obama’s 2008 rise to the national stage.

Larry Grisolano and John Del Cecato of AKPD Message and Media, are joining Buttigieg’s team, Grisolano confirmed to POLITICO on Wednesday.


Also joining the South Bend, Ind., mayor’s presidential campaign in consulting roles are Tyler Law, a former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee national press secretary who is now based in California handling communications strategy for AKPD, and pollster Katie Connolly of Benenson Strategy Group.

Grisolano, who also worked on Joe Biden’s 1988 presidential campaign and was the director of paid media for Obama’s presidential efforts, said he had talked to numerous campaigns about the coming presidential election before settling on Buttigieg.

“I thought about a number of candidates. This is the one that ended up feeling like a right fit for the firm and a sense of what the country is looking for and what we need,” Grisolano said.

“He has a voracious appetite for policy, for solutions and for answers,” Grisolano continued. “He has a really respectful touch with how he deals with people. And he has a real uplifting, hopeful vision of where he’d like to go. Those are all things that rekindle that excitement when I started paying attention to President Obama’s run.”

Other Obama campaign alumni holding prominent positions with Buttigieg include Lis Smith, a top communications adviser, and Stephen Brokaw, the campaign’s national political director.

Grisolano is the biggest new name in a growing list of staff hires for Buttigieg, who ran a small campaign early this year but came into the money to build his operation after going viral in March and catching on with major Democratic donors soon after. Buttigieg recently brought on teams for New Hampshire and Iowa and has added staffers to help manage his campaign’s fundraising.