White House Senior Adviser Gene Sperling Leaves for Harris Campaign

WASHINGTON—Biden senior adviser Gene Sperling is leaving the White House to join Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.

Biden said Sperling helped him “execute a rescue plan that has led to one of the most equitable and resilient economic recoveries ever.”

“I also looked to Gene as a trusted advisor on the economy and gave him some of the toughest assignments,” Biden said.

These assignments, Biden said, included working with the three biggest automakers—Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis—and the United Auto Workers as “they fought for—and secured—record contracts.”

Sperling, 65, will be a top economic adviser to the Harris campaign, which has been bringing in new staff including senior adviser David Plouffe, who managed former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

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Sperling’s relationship with Harris spans back to when she was California’s attorney general.

Sperling, who joined the current administration in March 2021, coordinated the American Rescue Plan, which gave 40 million families a temporary child tax credit, now expired, and handed emergency help to 8 million renters, according to the White House.

The GOP opposed the legislation, saying it would lead to greater inflation.

Sperling’s move was announced as Harris is set to embark on campaign trips starting Aug. 6, when her running mate, who has yet to be announced, will appear with her at a rally in Philadelphia.

She will also be making stops in Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan, and Georgia.

Sperling’s departure comes a week after Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn also left the White House after serving two stints.

Biden dropped his re-election campaign in July.

Like Sperling, Dunn served in the Obama administration. She was acting communications director in the White House. Her husband, Bob Bauer, is a personal attorney for Biden who has played key roles in Biden’s 2020 campaign and during special counsel Robert Hur’s probe of the president allegedly mishandling classified information.

Sperling headed the White House’s National Economic Council during the Clinton and Obama administrations. He worked in the Treasury Department during the Obama administration.

He was an economic adviser to both the successful 1996 re-election campaign of former President Bill Clinton and former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.