US Senator Elizabeth Warren told an audience this weekend that after the midterm elections she will take a “hard look” at running for president — but there are those in Warren’s world who may already be doing that.
Yet again another Warren staff member has headed to a key state in the 2020 race — more than two years before the next presidential election.
Saloni Sharma will serve as the communications director for the South Carolina Democratic Party. In addition, Nairoby Gabriel went from Warren’s team to the Nevada Democratic Party, where she will serve as the deputy for its get-out-the-vote efforts.
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This summer, two Warren staffers were dispatched to the New Hampshire Democratic Party, and in the spring, her longtime Senate press secretary moved to a senior role for the Ohio Democratic nominee for governor.
Earlier this year, the Democratic National Committee approved of a presidential primary calendar that places Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina ahead of the rest of the states in the nominating process.
So, collectively, the staffing moves mean that Warren has eyes and ears in three of the first four nominating states, as well as a trusted aide in the most important general election battleground state in the country.
This kind of staff movement is a tried and true practice in presidential campaigns. Ahead of the 2016 primary, then-governor Chris Christie of New Jersey had staffers who went to run the New Hampshire Republican Party and then-governor Terry Branstad’s reelection campaign in Iowa.
In New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton had some former aides working for US Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s reelection campaign in 2014. Similarly, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley funded staffers to work at the state parties in Iowa and New Hampshire.
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James Pindell can be reached at james.pindell@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jamespindell or subscribe to his Ground Game newsletter on politics: http://pages.email.bostonglobe.com/GroundGameSignUp