New Jersey Democrats are bringing in a high level national Democratic organizer and operative to run their statewide coordinated campaign in their bid to re-elect Gov. Phil Murphy and pickup seats in the state legislature.
A rollout of new staff hires for Murphy for Governor and the Democratic State Committee in headlined by Brooklynne Mosley, who led the coordinated campaign for the Texas Democratic Party in 2020 after working on Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign.
Axel Owen, a former Democratic State Committee political director who ran the campaign to legalize marijuana in New Jersey last year, will serve as deputy director of the coordinated campaign, which will be called Forward 2021.
The new hires also include Mike DeLamater, who stepped down earlier this month as Murphy’s deputy chief of staff, will serve as the Murphy for Governor political director.
Also joining the Murphy campaign as the digital organizing director is John Etienne, who worked on Warren’s Iowa and Florida primary campaigns and as deputy digital organizing director for Joe Biden in Minnesota last year.
“This group represents the very best and brightest of Democratic politics, and I’m incredibly proud to have them join our campaign to move New Jersey forward,” said Murphy. “With these talented professionals on our senior leadership team, we have the support in place to build a winning coalition and elect Democrats at all levels of government this year.”
Mollie Binotto, Murphy’s campaign manager, said she was pleased to welcome a team of accomplished Democratic operatives to the campaign.
Mosley, an Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom veteran, worked on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign as Kansas state coordinated campaign director and deputy executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party in 2018, and as a top aide to Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly.
Owen has run campaigns for State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch), Assemblywoman Joann Downey (D-Freehold) and Assemblyman Eric Houghtaling (D-Neptune) in the 11th district, State Sen. Joseph Lagana (D-Paramus) in the 38th, and Assemblymen Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick) and Roy Freiman (D-Hillsborough) in the 16th. He worked on Michael Bloomberg’s campaign for the 2020 presidential nomination.
“Working together with Murphy for Governor and other targeted campaigns, the Democratic State Committee and Forward 2021 will focus on activating voters throughout the state and building support for the Governor and Democratic candidates up and down the ballot,” said NJDSC Executive Director Saily Avelenda. “We’re excited to welcome Brooklynne and Axel to our team and look forward to ensuring that Democrats are engaged and excited about this campaign.”
DeLamater is the second member of Murphy’s 2017 campaign team to return to a full-time staff post, joining treasurer Rob Long. He was a regional political director four years ago and worked for Democratic legislators in the 36th district.
As deputy chief of staff, DeLamater held coordinate COVID-19 response efforts and vaccine distribution plans with federal, county and local elected officials.
Etienne comes from Florida and served as Southern Regional Director for the College Democrats of America and as an American Civil Liberties Union fellow.
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