John Hickenlooper announces new campaign manager amid shake-up

Democratic presidential hopeful John Hickenlooper is bringing on a new campaign manager and losing several key staffers, as his long-shot bid for the White House has struggled to get off the ground.

Mr. Hickenlooper on Tuesday said it was time for a change.

“These campaigns are long, hard campaigns, and you don’t always get it right with the first team,” he said on MSNBC.

Mr. Hickenlooper’s campaign had said late Monday that M.E. Smith — a former campaign staffer for Mr. Hickenlooper, Sen. Bob Casey and Sen. Michael Bennet — will serve as his new campaign manager.

Ms. Smith replaces Brad Komar, who along with finance director Dan Sorenson is moving on from the campaign. Campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt is also expected to leave shortly.

The former Colorado governor said the departures were a combination of his letting people go and staffers quitting.

“We felt it was the right time for a change,” he said.

The news comes at the close of the second-quarter fundraising period, which is likely to show Mr. Hickenlooper well back of top-tier contenders in terms of money raised and cash on hand.

“Well, we certainly haven’t raised $24 million,” Mr. Hickenlooper said.

That amount is in line with what South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont brought in over the last three months.

“I’m not going to get into it until we pull the numbers together,” he said.

Mr. Hickenlooper has tried to carve out a place in the moderate lane of the 2020 Democratic presidential field by criticizing far-reaching policy proposals such as Mr. Sanders’ “Medicare for All” health care plan and saying repeatedly that Democrats must reject “socialism” in order to defeat President Trump.

“For a small campaign like us — Colorado is about 6 million, or a little less than 6 million people — it’s harder to raise money [because] we’re not promising free health care or … free tuition for everyone, forgive student debt,” he said.