Ben LaBolt, a former adviser to Barack Obama who has worked on specific projects for President Biden, will replace White House communications director Kate Bedingfield next month when she leaves the administration for an expected role in the president’s reelection campaign as a consultant, Biden advisers said Friday.
LaBolt, a partner at the Democratic firm Bully Pulpit Interactive in San Francisco, is set to become the first openly gay person to hold the job of communications director, a role that traditionally oversees all aspects of the president’s public relations strategy. He worked for the Biden team during its transition effort after the 2020 election, and again as the head of communications for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation effort. His appointment was first reported by NBC News.
Bedingfield, who has worked for Biden since his days as vice president, is the latest in a series of White House officials who have announced they are leaving after two grueling years, following former chief of staff Ron Klain and top economic adviser Brian Deese. She previously worked as a deputy campaign manager on Biden’s 2020 campaign and is expected to remain involved in the reelection effort once it is announced later this year, said a Biden adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the planning.
“She was a critical strategic voice from the very first day of my presidential campaign in 2019 and has been a key part of advancing my agenda in the White House,” Biden said in a statement announcing the change. “The country is better off as a result of her hard work and I’m so grateful to her — and to her husband and two young children — for giving so much.”
During the 2020 campaign, Bedingfield’s staff referred to her publicly as the captain of Biden’s “team of killers,” a nickname derived from a quote attributed to President Donald Trump, who was reported to have complained privately about the effectiveness of the Biden operation. She was one of the campaign’s founding advisers, part of a small crew in the early months of the effort who appeared frequently as an on-camera defender of Biden during the campaign. At the White House, she oversaw the broader public relations strategy for the president.
The White House announced in July 2022 that Bedingfield would be leaving that summer to spend more time with her family. Weeks later, she reversed her decision, saying she that she had been regretting the announcement and wanted to continue at the White House. “There is so much more to do,” she said in a tweet.
After working as press secretary for then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), LaBolt served as Obama’s senior national spokesman during the 2008 presidential campaign, and then worked in the White House as assistant press secretary, helping with the confirmation efforts of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. He left to advise former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s successful bid to become Chicago mayor, and then worked as national press secretary for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.
He later founded the Incite Agency with former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. They later merged their firm with Bully Pulpit, which LaBolt plans to leave to join the White House. In the private sector, LaBolt has represented the philanthropic efforts of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Emerson Collective founder Laurene Powell Jobs and former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg. His firm has also advised technology companies like Uber, Google, Airbnb and Sonos, as well as political efforts like the 2020 Biden campaign and Everytown for Gun Safety.
“Ben has big shoes to fill,” Biden continued in the statement. “I look forward to welcoming him back as a first-rate communicator who’s shown his commitment to public service again and again, and who has a cutting-edge understanding of how Americans consume information.”