Gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Holcombe has started staffing up her 2020 bid, recently hiring an out-of-state Democratic operative with a background running congressional races as her campaign manager.
Holcombe, a former secretary of the Agency of Education, and the only Democrat to announce her candidacy for governor this cycle, confirmed Wednesday that she has hired Kyle Quinn-Quesada, who previously ran campaigns for candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, and worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
She has also added Molly Hussey, a recent graduate of New York University who has interned in congressional offices, to work on fundraising. Cameron Russell, who ran Christine Hallquist’s Democratic gubernatorial campaign in 2018, has joined the Holcombe campaign part time.
“It’s great to be in a position to finally be able to put together a team to get this show on the road,” Holcombe said Wednesday.
While Gov. Phil Scott has yet to say whether he is running in 2020, and claims he won’t announce one way or another until after the legislative session ends in the spring, Holcombe’s campaign is preparing to take him on.
Quinn-Quesada said that part of the campaign’s strategy challenging Scott will be messaging that Holcombe would be able to deliver on the governor’s “failed promise to make Vermont more affordable.”
He said Holcombe will show “she has a plan to actually cut costs and raise wages so that families can actually afford to live here in Vermont.”
“He’s a good guy and it seems like he wants to be there,” Quinn-Quesada said of Scott. “But right now we don’t need someone who’s just a caretaker governor. We need someone who’s actually going to step up … and deliver on these promises.”
In 2018, Quinn-Quesada served as campaign manager for Hans Keirstead, a stem-cell scientist who lost in the Democratic primary whose winner ran against Republican incumbent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and lost. In 2014, he worked as campaign manager for former U.S. Rep. Ron Barber D-Ariz., who lost against Republican challenger Martha McSally.
He also worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2016, helping to produce advertisements for Democratic candidates across the country.
Holcombe said she is also still working with the Washington, D.C.-based consultants she announced would be providing her campaign with assistance in July.
Candidates for governor in Vermont, including Scott, often rely on out-of-state consultants for services including mailers and advertisements. However, hiring national operatives to run gubernatorial campaigns is less common.
Since she announced her candidacy in July, Holcombe has been campaigning across the state and says she has raised about $250,000, mostly from small donors. Holcombe’s first campaign finance filings won’t be made public, however, until March — the next disclosure deadline.
Now that she has started building a staff, Holcombe says she will begin to build a campaign platform.
But she has already said that lowering health care costs and taking an aggressive approach to combating climate change will be among her top priorities.
Holcombe called out Gov. Phil Scott earlier this month for saying he wasn’t looking to “reinvent the wheel” or “come out with something dramatic” when it comes to proposals on climate change. She continued to draw a contrast with Scott on Wednesday.
“I think we need to be planning for a future where we know our climate will be altered and we need to be anticipating how to plan for that future,” she said. “We need to have a broader plan than just cleaning the water.”
While Scott has yet to say whether he is running in 2020, and claims he won’t announce one way or another until after the legislative session ends in the spring, Democrats are assuming that the Republican governor will seek reelection.
A recent poll from Morning Consult found Scott is the third most popular governor in the country, with a 64% approval rating in Vermont, making him a challenge for any Democrat running against him.
While Holcombe is the only Democrat who has announced she is running for governor, others are mulling runs in 2020. Attorney General TJ Donovan and Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman are considering campaigns. So is Brenda Siegel, an anti-poverty activist who ran in the Democratic governor primary in 2018.
Holcombe said she plans on continuing to grow her campaign, but that she doesn’t have a particular target in mind when it comes to staffers.
“Right now we’re trying to run lean and mean and do what we need to do to mount a formidable challenge,” she said.
Correction: Hans Keirstead, whose last name has been corrected, lost in a Democratic primary, finishing third, not to Rohrabacher himself.
