Longtime Policy Adviser Rohini Kosoglu Likely to Join Kamala Harris’ Presidential Campaign Staff
- The Sri Lankan American became Harris’s deputy chief of staff when she first joined the Senate in 2016, and moved up the ranks of Harris’ inner circle in the years since.
Vice President Kamala Harris has begun her campaign in full swing after President Biden dropped his bid for a second term and endorsed her. She’s also reportedly expanding the team she “inherited” from the president, and is trying to bring in some of the people she worked with in the past, as reported by The Washington Post.
One of them, as The Post speculated, is Rohini Kosoglu, a longtime Harris policy adviser who worked in her Senate and vice-presidential office. The Post also noted that Kosoglu was among some of Harris’ former aides who were “recently brought back into the fold” ahead of her debate with Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).
The Sri Lankan American became Harris’s deputy chief of staff when she first joined the Senate in 2016 and moved up the ranks of Harris’ inner circle in the years since. Since 2017, she served as a senior advisor to Harris in her U.S. Senate office and later in her presidential campaign. She was the first South Asian woman to serve as chief of staff to a U.S. Senator and was notably the only Asian American to serve in that role during her tenure.
Speaking on a Zoom call with over 9,000 South Asian women on July 24, Kosoglu shared an anecdote when Harris’ was sworn-in to the U.S. Senate from California in January 2017. Usually, a new Senator is joined by the family which is usually three to four people. But in Harris’ case, “close family meant at least 30-35 people,” Kosoglu said, recalling how they had to get special permission from the Senate to accommodate the people who came to support and cheer Harris. “There were people flying from Canada, India, and all parts of the U.S.,” Kosoglu said.
Kosoglu previously served as the former deputy assistant to President Joe Biden. Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, she was the chief policy advisor to Harris on the most pressing domestic and economic issues facing the nation. She oversaw policy issues on behalf of the president and vice president “to lift up the middle class, ensure America’s competitiveness with the rest of the world, and protect our fundamental rights as Americans,” according to her Institute of Politics Harvard profile.
During Harris’ presidential campaign, she “managed and oversaw debate preparation, policy, communications, and operations for a team with over three hundred staff with a $40 million budget.” As chief of staff to Harris in the U.S. Senate, her role included directing legislative strategy and leadership on key committees. She is credited with “creating a diverse and representative staff by developing a talent pipeline that led to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies naming Harris’ office as the most diverse on Capitol Hill.”
After nearly six years with Harris, Kosoglu left the post in July 2022. She told The Post at the time she stepped down to spend more time with her family. Noting that her departure “should not be viewed as part of a pattern of staff instability,” she said her boss understands that her family is looking forward to her taking the time off. “I will always be here should she need any trusted information or counsel,” Kosoglu told The Post, and added that “even through this time period, she’s been an invaluable source of support and guidance to me to come to this decision.”
Meanwhile, Harris, in a statement on CNN, praised Kosoglu and said she would remain “a valued advisor and friend. “Rohini Kosoglu is a brilliant and trusted leader who has been at my side for years from the U.S. Senate to the campaign trail to the White House, and will remain a valued advisor and friend.”
Kosoglu’s career on Capitol Hill has also included positions with leading Democratic Senators, including Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). During her tenure, she led negotiations on numerous bipartisan legislation, with a focus on the economy and health care. Most notably, she served as a key advisor during the drafting and passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
She graduated with honors from the University of Michigan and has a master’s degree from George Washington University. She currently resides in the Washington D.C. area with her husband and three sons.
