Former Vice President Joe Biden has hired the out gay former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark – and one of Barack Obama’s top election campaign advisers – to be his new deputy campaign manager focused on finance, external outreach, and coalition building.
Rufus Gifford was referred to as Obama’s unofficial “ambassador to the gay community.” He was named ambassador in 2013, and in 2015 he married his husband Stephen DeVincent in Copenhagen, shortly after marriage equality was legalized in the U.S.
Related: Denmark is snubbing the American ambassador over Trump’s attacks on LGBTQ rights
“Rufus will focus on places where finance intersects with policy and political work and will also occasionally serve as a spokesperson for the campaign,” a campaign official told the Washington Post.
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On Twitter, Gifford said that he has “never been more fired up for a new job.”
Never been more fired up for a new job. 🇺🇸 @JoeBiden https://t.co/50PwuuD82l
— Rufus Gifford (@rufusgifford) April 29, 2020
He also said that he was starting on Monday, sharing a picture of his husband.
Starting a pretty important job on Monday.
Until then I’ll focus on my most important job: husband to this guy.
(And yes I cooked dinner!) pic.twitter.com/0AfofAEZJg
— Rufus Gifford (@rufusgifford) April 30, 2020
In 2008, Gifford served as an adviser to the Obama campaign. During Obama’s first term, he was the Democratic National Committee’s finance director. In 2012, he was the finance director of Obama’s reelection campaign, before he was named ambassador.
In 2018, he ran for Congress in Massachusetts, but he lost the campaign.
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