If the presidential race ends up being the insider Hillary Clinton versus the outsider Donald Trump, congressional staff are showing a crystal clear preference for the insider Clinton based on who they are working for.
By LegiStorm's informal tallies, Clinton has roughly 10 times the number of former congressional staff working on her campaign than Trump has on his. LegiStorm tracks the movements of former staff through a variety of methods, including monitoring LinkedIn and media mentions, but is not a comprehensive picture of all campaign staff. Still, the trend that emerges is clear.
The Hillary for America campaign has employed at least 38 Hill aides since she threw her hat into the ring last year. Some of her campaign workers have worked with Clinton prior to the 2016 race in some capacity with her past campaigns, her time in the Senate, her time in Foggy Bottom or even at the White House during her husband's administration. Others have prior campaign experience, like Jen Berg. The Gig Harbor, Wash.-native assisted former Sen. Kay Hagan's (D-N.C.), Gov. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) with their election bids and now serves as the Pacific Northwest finance director. Most recently, Laura Schiller joined the campaign trail after serving as the long-time chief of staff for outgoing Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
Donald Trump, who has been criticized for a lack of a working relationship with Congress, has only brought on four former congressional aides to support his bid for the White House. The lone Republican has most recently brought on John Mashburn as a policy director after most recently serving as freshman Sen. Thom Tillis's (R-N.C.) chief of staff. Michael Glassner, the campaign's national political director, worked for former Sens. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.). The real estate mogul's senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, has previously been a press aide to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), former Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) and former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). The top campaign staffer, Corey Lewandowski, served former Rep. Peter Torkildsen (R-Mass.), former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), former Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) and former Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee before making the headlines constantly for his controversial campaign tactics.
The Bernie 2016 campaign has at least 12 congressional staffers among its current or former ranks. Half of those "feeling the Bern" have worked for the Vermont senator in either his personal office on Capitol Hill or in one of his committee assignments. Sanders' former Maui field organizer, Katie McMillan, is now working for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) in the Aloha State. Gabbard has been a vocal Bernie supporter and resigned her post as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee after clashing with DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) over her support of Sanders.
