Vice President Joe Biden has hired Kate Bedingfield, a top film industry spokeswoman who worked on John Edwards’s 2008 presidential campaign, as his new communications director.
Bedingfield had served as vice president of corporate communications for the Motion Picture Association of America since 2013. She will succeed Shailagh Murray, who was appointed senior adviser to President Barack Obama.
“She will be a key adviser to me, a terrific asset to our office, and an important member of the entire White House organization,” Biden said in a statement Monday.
Reports that Biden is seriously considering running for president in 2016 have picked up steam over the weekend. On Saturday, Biden met with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
In her new post in the vice president’s office at the White House, Bedingfield will cover Biden’s official duties as vice president. She would be barred from any campaign functions should Biden decide to enter the presidential race.
Prior to her work at the MPAA, Bedingfield worked in the White House press shop as associate communications director.
In 2008, she served as top spokeswoman for New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s campaign and was Edwards’s New Hampshire communications director.