Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Patricia Campos-Medina unveiled her campaign team for U.S. Senate yesterday, featuring several veterans of New Jersey Democratic campaigns.
Orville Morales, a former campaign staffer to Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) with a long history in Passaic and Bergen County politics, will serve as Campos-Medina’s campaign manager. Aileen Merino, a former Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) aide and Middlesex County Democratic operative, will be her political director; Barry Brendel, a former campaign co-chair for Bernie Sanders in New Jersey, will be her director of field strategies.
“I am thrilled to be surrounded by a team committed to changing our politics and helping me build a grassroots campaign,” Campos-Medina said in a statement. “I am confident that with their guidance and support, we will advance our progressive message directly to voters and build a winning campaign by re-energizing the Democratic base of the working class, young, Black, Latino, and voters of color.”
Campos-Medina also said that national political strategists Chuck Rocha and Daysi Gonzalez will serve as her senior advisors, and that she’ll use the political and media firm of Devine Mulvey Longabaugh.
Campos-Medina faces an uphill climb in the Democratic primary for indicted Senator Bob Menendez’s seat, with Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) and First Lady Murphy commanding most of the primary’s attention thus far.