Former Vice President Joe Biden is moving forward into 2020 by reaching back to the past.
He has named a new campaign manager as he looks to transition from the Democratic primary to the general election, where it’s widely assumed that he will be the nominee.
As he heads towards a President Donald Trump matchup, Biden suddenly shifted campaign gears.
And the new head of his campaign is a familiar face in Democratic circles — a former aide to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Jen O’Malley Dillon will serve as campaign manager going forward, according to a source familiar with the decision.
She’d already helped Biden resurrect his campaign, being brought in to focus on Nevada after dismal finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire put the former vice president’s third White House on the brink of collapse.
Biden finished a distant second to Bernie Sanders in Nevada, but it was enough to set the stage for his surge from South Carolina onward.
O’Malley Dillon, 43, nominally succeeds Greg Schultz, who has served as campaign manager since Biden announced his bid last April.
But Schultz already was practically superseded after Iowa, when Biden elevated adviser Anita Dunn by giving her final decision-making authority.
It’s not immediately clear whether Dunn will retain senior status over O’Malley Dillon. Schultz, meanwhile, has continued to serve Biden with a wide-ranging portfolio, including as a primary contact for top donors and elected officials around the country.
O’Malley Dillon’s promotion was first reported by The Washington Post.
The move serves as a reminder that Biden’s campaign, even with his rapid ascent to the national delegate leader and prohibitive favorite for the nomination, spent months beset by poor fundraising, insufficient organization and quiet but widespread frustrations from Democratic Party donors and power players.
O’Malley Dillon has a long resume in Democratic politics.
She was a deputy campaign manager for Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012.
She was a top official in Clinton’s 2016 campaign and later was Clinton’s choice as co-chair of the Democratic Party’s special commission that overhauled the 2020 nominating process. She managed Beto O’Rourke’s failed 2020 presidential campaign.
O’Rourke is among the many former candidates to endorse Biden.
The Associated Press contributed to this article