Thirty-five percent of Joe Biden’s full-time staff are people of color, a Biden campaign assistant told CNN, while 36% of top staff are people of color. Both senior and full-time staff are majority women, with 53% full-time staff and 58% of senior staff identified as female. Five percent of the staff decided not to specify, the assistant told CNN.
The recently released data does not indicate a complete breakdown of employees by race and ethnicity.
Alida García, co-founder of Inclusv, a diversity group in politics, told CNN that the firm is “excited” to see that Biden’s campaign “took this great first step towards transparency around the composition of its team,” But he noted that obviously “there is room for growth.”
“We are optimistic that they may even exceed the numbers where Hillary Clinton ended her campaign,” said Garcia.
According to the assistant, senior staff includes department heads, senior advisers, deputy campaign managers, and senior consultants who spend most of their time in the campaign and others. The assistant notes that the campaign is still continuing the hiring process and hopes to continue adding key leaders throughout the campaign.
The release of the data comes after Biden was pressured about the diversity of his senior staff during a town hall focused on issues affecting Asian and Pacific Island communities and amid a growing national conversation on racial justice. and inclusion.
Biden claimed the author of the question was and ordered his staff to post diversity data after the event.
“We will publish the diversity data today when we come out of this call. We will call it, and the fact is that we have a very diverse staff. And we have a diverse staff that covers all domains, generally senior positions,” Biden said.
Garcia told CNN that Inclusv has been working with the campaign for months to build a diverse team and anticipated that they will work together in the coming weeks to hold seminars and events for people of color who are interested in participating in the campaign.
Noting the lack of specificity in the published data, Garcia said: “Giving each community a better understanding of its position within the organization is really important both for the organization to reflect on itself and to make sure they are building teams. in states that reflect state voters but external entities assess how much of a table seat they actually have. “
“At a minimum, we believe that democratic campaigns should be a reflection of the voters who compose their votes for their paths to victory,” said Garcia.
Biden has often touted the diversity of his team on the campaign trail, telling voters who questioned what an inclusive president would be like to “look at my staff.” He has also long promised that he will have a diverse administration that “looks like the United States,” although his campaign recently will not provide diversity data to BuzzFeed News when prompted.
In response to the specific question Biden was asked on Saturday about the representation of Asians and Pacific Islanders during City Hall, the campaign noted that AAPI’s top leaders in the campaign include the Chief Financial Officer, COO, national director of voter protection, digital director of the campaign. staff, director of digital associations and substitute director.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Inclusv.
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