OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN FOR CHANGE ROUNDS OUT SENIOR STAFF FOR MINNESOTA CAMPAIGN
ST. PAUL – Today, Barack Obama’s Campaign for Change in Minnesota announced its field, political, surrogate and new media directors, rounding its senior staff for the general election campaign. Jaci Urness will serve as field director, Dominick Washington will serve as political director, C. Scott Cooper will serve as surrogate director and Xavier Lopez-Ayala will be the new media director. The Obama campaign previously announced that Jeff Blodgett is taking the helm as state director and Nick Kimball will serve as communications director for the Minnesota campaign. Five of the six senior staff members make their homes in Minnesota.
Jaci Urness has been with the Obama for 19 months, having worked across the country. She started out in Des Moines, IA, and continued on to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Wyoming, Washington, Nevada, and Virginia during the primary season. Urness worked for the Minnesota Coordinated Campaign in 2006 and also worked as a legislative aide to former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Dean E. Johnson. She graduated from the University of Iowa and grew up on a farm outside Fischer, MN.
Dominick Washington has served as communications manager for Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and was deputy press secretary for former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle from 2000 to 2002. Washington was a delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention and has advised political campaigns in Minnesota. Prior to joining the Obama campaign, he was communications director at UnitedHealth Group where he was responsible for developing and executing external communications strategies. Washington is a South Dakota native and is a graduate of Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD.
C. Scott Cooper is a longtime activist in Minnesota's progressive political community. He recently served for six years as the executive director of the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action, following several years as the public policy director for OutFront Minnesota. Prior to that, Cooper served as a member of former Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone's U.S. Senate staff during Wellstone's first term. Cooper has played key roles in several Minnesota elections, including Wellstone's campaigns, Skip Humphrey's gubernatorial campaign, and serving as campaign manager for former Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton's successful 1997 reelection bid. Cooper is a graduate of Macalester College and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Xavier Lopez-Ayala came to the Obama campaign from the Hillary for President campaign. He worked for the Clinton campaign in Iowa, Michigan, California, Ohio and Indiana. Lopez-Ayala has previous experience working for a social networking website, as the student coordinator for the Mexican-American Political Association and as a community outreach fellow with Polaris Project's Los Angeles office. Lopez-Ayala attends Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI, where he majors in Political Science.
“We are honored to have these professionals join our team as we head into the home stretch of the campaign,” Obama for America Minnesota state director Jeff Blodgett said. “Minnesota voters are hungry for something different. Barack Obama has detailed proposals that will strengthen the economy, create good jobs and turn things around in our country. We’re looking forward to building a strong grassroots organization, made up of thousands of Minnesota volunteers, to talk with voters about Senator Obama’s ideas and to compete for every single vote across the state.”
