Trump and Clinton campaign officials

The staff and advisors for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign were a mixture of longtime Clinton advisors and newer staffers—like LaDavia Drane and Maya Harris—who came to the campaign after working on social justice issues. Although Clinton officially declared her candidacy on April 12, 2015, she already had a large pool of available staff and advisors from her long career in politics. Many high-profile positions in the campaign were filled with advisors who had worked for former President Bill Clinton (D). Pollster and chief strategist Joel Benensondid similar work in the Clinton administration, while John Podesta was Bill Clinton's chief of staff.

Clinton also pulled from her State Department and Senate staffs for her early campaign hires. Former body person and deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin has been with Clinton since she was first lady, while foreign policy advisor Jake Sullivan worked with Clinton in the State Department and on Clinton's 2008 campaign.

Yet for all the staff members with deep ties to Clinton, the 2016 campaign staff was notable for its relative newcomers. In 2007, The Washington Post described her circle of advisors—known as "Hillaryland" since her days as first lady—as a "closely knit Praetorian Guard around Clinton that plots strategy, develops message and clamps down on leaks."^[1] The 2016 campaign less comfortably fit the "Hillaryland" mold. The most notable addition was campaign manager Robby Mook, whose campaign approach was to "test everything, question assumptions and let data drive things."^[2] The additions of Marlon Marshall and Jim Margolis, both of whom used similar campaigning techniques with Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, added to the newer feel of Clinton's 2016 run.