Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness MORE (I-Vt.) will have a new campaign manager if he runs for president in 2020.
Jeff Weaver, who served as Sanders’s campaign manager in his 2016 bid told CNN on Wednesday he would serve in a senior advisory capacity in the event Sanders runs again.
Weaver said the senator and his allies understood the need for a more diverse and experienced leadership staff were Sanders to seek the Democratic nomination again, pointing to criticism leveled at the 2016 team.
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“If he decides to run again, Bernie would have to have a campaign structure which is much more robust with a much bigger leadership team,” Weaver told CNN. “It would have to be much more diverse than was the case in 2016, when it was too male and too white.”
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“It was never my intention to run a subsequent campaign if there is one. I think if you look at presidential campaign managers, the number of people who have run multiple campaigns is very few,” he added.
“I think I can be most helpful to Bernie, if he runs, being a strategic adviser that needs to deal with some of the 30,000-foot issues as opposed to the management of a day-to-day campaign.”
A source close to Sanders’s 2020 deliberations told CNN that a number of “top-level people” were in discussions to potentially take senior leadership roles, including campaign manager, if the senator jumps into the race.
“For many months now there have been efforts to make sure the door is open should Sanders decide he should run for president,” CNN’s source said.
“That involves preliminary conversations with a number of top-level people who might take senior roles in the campaign, including for campaign manager.”
Sanders said in November that he would run if he thought he had the best chance to defeat President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE among the declared Democratic candidates, but added that he did not have a “burning desire” to be president.
“If there’s somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I’ll work my ass off to elect him or her,” the senator told New York Magazine. “If it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run.”