Joe Biden’s Surrogate Director Previously Consulted for the Lincoln Project

Joe Biden’s new director of surrogate strategy was previously a high-paid consultant to the Lincoln Project, a political action committee formed by a cadre of GOP operatives opposed to President Donald Trump.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings made public on Wednesday indicate that the Lincoln Project paid Elrod Strategies, LLC., a Washington, DC-based public relations firm, $18,750 for “communications consulting” between April 16 and May 1 of this year. The firm was founded in April 2017 by Adrienne Elrod, a well-connected Democrat strategist who served as the spokesperson for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The exact nature of Elrod’s work for the Lincoln Project is unclear. A review of the Never Trump group’s prior FEC filings shows it had no financial relationship with Elrod Strategies before April of this year. It is uncertain, though, if the group has ties to Elrod through any of its vendors, many of which are run by the Lincoln Project’s founding members. Neither the Lincoln Project nor Elrod Strategies responded to requests for comment on this story.

At the same time that Elrod was consulting for the Lincoln Project, her company was also employed by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in a communications capacity. The firm’s work with the DNC dates back to at least February 2018, with Elrod Strategies being paid nearly $5,000 a month for its services.

That relationship, though, appears to have been put on hold in early June when Elrod joined the Biden campaign as its director for surrogate strategy. In the role, Elrod is responsible for not only expanding the former vice president’s list of endorsers, but also mobilizing current surrogates to advance the campaign’s message. Since joining Biden’s team, she has helped roll out a new effort to draft celebrities to conduct virtual chats with supporters and staffers via Instagram.

The Biden campaign’s ties to the Lincoln Project through Elrod come to light as the Never Trump group is facing criticism from both the left and the right.

Democrats, in particular, have claimed that while the Lincoln Project shares much of the left’s enmity for Trump, it is only a short-term ally, at best. Many cite the long-held political stances, most notably the economic and neoconservative foreign policy views, of the Lincoln Project’s founders as proof that Never Trumpers have little in common with Democrats or the goals the party hopes to achieve when in power.

“Support the Lincoln Project if you want but know what you are supporting,” Dan Pfeiffer, the former White House communications director for President Barack Obama, wrote in a piece published by Crooked Media on Thursday. “And, oh yeah, make sure you cancel your recurring donation before the Lincoln Project starts running ads attacking President Biden for raising taxes on oil companies in early 2021.”

Republicans aligned with Trump, on the other hand, argue the Lincoln Project is an effort, largely funded by Democrats and progressives, to damage the president and his allies within the GOP ahead of the general election. Some conservatives point out the group has not only officially endorsed Biden, but has begun targeting several particularly vulnerable Republican senators seeking reelection this year.

The Biden campaign did not respond to requests for comment.