Hillary Clinton speaks during a presidential primary election night rally on June 7 in New York. | AP Photo Clinton hires Sanders' top student organizer

Hillary Clinton’s team is moving to shore up an area where she urgently needs help — the campaign has hired Bernie Sanders' director of student organizing to serve as her national campus and student organizing director, a Clinton official confirmed to POLITICO.

Kunoor Ojha is the Clinton campaign’s first major hire from the Sanders campaign, and her move to a role where she will work with the state teams to mobilize young voters represents a significant step in the former secretary of state’s outreach to the Vermont senator’s most ardent backers.


Sanders routinely outperformed her by massive margins among the youngest voting age groups, and Clinton has repeatedly said that she admires Sanders’ strength among that group. The demographic has provided the backbone for Sanders’ support, and his stump speech often directly insists that this kind of support means his campaign represents the future.

Clinton has thus far been unable to replicate Sanders' success with the group that’s pivotal to Democrats, and the move — coming as her campaign swings toward its general election match-up against Donald Trump — suggests that she is looking directly at bringing Sanders’ backers to her side.

It also means that Clinton’s political effort has entered a new phase of outreach: members of losing campaigns often fold into the party nominee’s efforts, and Ojha — who was a field organizer for Barack Obama in 2008 — is the first public hire.