President Barack Obama’s re-election team has selected Katherine Archuleta to be his national political director, marking the first time a Latina holds such a position in a major presidential campaign.
Archuleta will be leaving her current role as chief of staff to U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to conduct outreach to elected officials and groups on the Obama re-election campaign.
Prior to this appointment, Archuleta was an influential figure in Colorado’s Hispanic community, working as an aide for Mayor Federico Pena—the first Hispanic mayor of Denver. She also previously served as a senior advisor to then-Mayor John Hickenlooper and was the lead city planner in charge of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, as well as the executive director for the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation.
Archuleta will join two former top White House officials in Chicago, Jim Messina and David Axelrod, the latter recently stepping down from his post as White House senior adviser to rejoin the campaign in his former 2008 role of chief strategist and top political adviser.
Colorado, with a reputation for being a swing state, is considered a key pick up for the Obama campaign in 2012. With her ties to Colorado and the Latino community, Archuleta’s new position will give the Obama campaign an edge for now in the Rocky mountain state as the Republican presidential playing field looks to level itself out.
In a recent trip to Colorado, GOP strategist Karl Rove said, “In 2012, as goes Colorado so goes the nation.”
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