Coming off a historic primary win to face Republican incumbent Ralph Norman in South Carolina’s 5th congressional district, Moe Brown moved quickly to make key additions to his campaign team in the month of July. Brown announced three new hires, building on the established team of senior staff that have been with the campaign from day one. Despite the lull of in-person campaigning from both sides due to the ongoing pandemic, Brown has been gearing up behind the scenes to run a sizable operation to support his bid to unseat Norman.
The Brown campaign brought on two staffers – Jimmy Williams and Meghan Durant – to assist the communications team. Williams (right), who will help oversee messaging and general communications strategy for the campaign, is a veteran political operative from South Carolina with nearly 30 years of experience. Williams spent seven years as a senior staffer in the United States Senate, including five years as the Senior Economic Policy Advisor to Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (IL). After leaving public service, he went on to lobby before the U.S. Congress for multiple interests, begin a career as an independent opinion journalist, and eventually serve as an advisor to political campaigns back home in South Carolina.
Durant (left), who was brought on to assist with media relations, is a graduate of the University of South Carolina with experience in press strategy for candidates across the state. Serving as the Communications Director for the South Carolina Senate Democrats and previously as Deputy Communications Director for the South Carolina Democratic Party, Durant has spent her young career thus far crafting messaging and building profiles for Democrats in the state.
Brown also hired Kristin Broner (right) to ramp up campaign fundraising operations. Broner is a fundraising expert with more than 8 years of professional experience working with political campaigns, political advocacy, nonprofits, and trade associations. She has worked at the local, state, and national levels, and has served in various finance and political positions. Most recently, Broner served as the Southern Finance Director for the Cory 2020 Presidential Campaign where she managed and supervised fundraising for thirteen states. Kicking off her first weeks with Brown, the campaign announced that they had raised more than double their opponent in the second quarter.
These hires come as the Brown campaign builds confidence in their ability to flip South Carolina’s 5th congressional district. Although the district has been held by Republicans since John Spratt’s loss in 2010, recent elections indicate that a strong candidate like Brown could win this seat back for Democrats in 2020.