Massachusetts natives tapped for key roles in Joe Biden’s administration

By LISA KASHINSKY

PUBLISHED:  | UPDATED: 

Massachusetts natives are being named to key White House staff positions in President-elect Joe Biden’s administration amid ongoing speculation over which big-name Bay State pols might get a nod down the road.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, 44, a native of Franklin and Jamaica Plain who managed Biden’s presidential campaign, was named deputy chief of staff on Tuesday.

Dillon, a Tufts University graduate and mother of three, was the first female campaign manager for a successful Democratic presidential campaign. She served as campaign manager for Beto O’Rourke’s campaign before joining the Biden team, deputy campaign manager for former President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign and director of battleground states for his 2008 run.

Annie Tomasini, another Bay Stater, was named director of Oval Office operations. A Boston University graduate, Tomasini is currently Biden’s traveling chief of staff and has worked with the family for over a decade, including as deputy press secretary when Biden was vice president and press secretary when he was a senator.

Tomasini serves on the board of directors for the Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester and was senior director of state, local and community relations and strategic outreach for Harvard Public Affairs and Communications. She got her start at Rasky Partners, the venerable public relations firm whose namesake, the late Larry Rasky, was a close confidant of Biden’s.

Dillon and Tomasini join several high-ranking campaign officials in the still-forming and increasingly diverse ranks of the Biden administration.

Ron Klain, a senior campaign adviser, was previously named White House chief of staff.

Mike Donilon, the campaign’s chief strategist, will become a senior adviser. Dana Remus, the campaign’s general counsel who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., will become Biden’s counsel.

Campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti will become counselor to the president. U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., a national campaign co-chairman, will serve as a senior adviser and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Deputy campaign manager Julie Rodriguez will direct the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Anthony Bernal, Jill Biden’s campaign chief of staff, will serve as her senior adviser. Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, an Obama administration alum, will be her chief of staff.

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