Adrienne Elrod and Rufus Gifford, who’ve been prime strategists on Democratic campaigns and officers in latest presidential administrations, are partnering to launch a brand new communications, fundraising and technique agency.
The Elrod Gifford Group will symbolize particular person, non-profit and company shoppers, at a second when Democrats and progressives grapple with when and the way to reply to the Republican dominance on the federal degree. Elrod mentioned that the agency will work with shoppers to “navigate this more and more difficult and complicated world.”
Elrod most lately was senior adviser and senior spokesperson for Kamala Harris’ presidential marketing campaign and, earlier than that, had the identical place for President Joe Biden’s reelection bid. She was director of exterior affairs for the CHIPS program workplace for Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. She additionally was director of surrogate technique and operations for Biden’s 2020 marketing campaign and had an analogous function in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 bid.
Gifford was finance chair of the Harris-Walz and Biden-Harris campaigns, which raised a mixed $2.2 billion. He was chief of protocol with the rank of ambassador throughout the Biden administration, and served as U.S. ambassador to Denmark throughout the second time period of Barack Obama. He additionally has been nationwide finance director of the Democratic Nationwide Committee and served as an aide on Obama’s 2008 marketing campaign.
Along with company and philanthropic organizations, additionally they wish to work with political figures and teams.
Gifford mentioned that “there’s one thing of a possibility proper now, each for the Democratic Occasion, but in addition the opposition to Trump, to reorganize and construct ourselves again up once more. Adrienne and I wish to be half if that dialog, and wish to lead a few of that work that can inevitably be taking place over the subsequent couple of months, in addition to years prematurely of 2028.”
Elrod famous that Democrats “haven’t been on this place since 1988,” after Michael Dukakis was defeated within the presidential race, and the get together was left with out a clear chief. Now, she mentioned, Democrats and “don’t essentially have a referee, one human being who’s kind of generally known as the chief of the get together. After which that particular person’s folks develop into the operative class if you’ll.”
“We’re in no way making an attempt to say that we’re the leaders of the get together, however we wish to work with people, the subsequent technology of expertise, that’s going to steer the get together going into the longer term, going into 2026, going into 2028,” Elrod mentioned. “We wish to work with these people. We wish to work with these organizations. We wish to work on the entrance traces of actually serving to to reorganize the get together.”
Gifford mentioned, “Trump 2.0 is a chaotic model of governing, the likes of which we haven’t seen in our lifetime and, I might argue, longer than that. So how can we assist individuals who have nervousness, who wish to assist, who wish to assist in a method, form or type, how can we assist that? And we do suppose that we’ll have the power to attempt to steer a few of these conversations.”
