Beto O’Rourke is expanding his national staff despite a weak fundraising quarter, adding a number of senior hires.
Nick Rathod, a Democratic operative who served as President Barack Obama’s liaison to state officials, has been hired as a senior national political adviser, a campaign spokesperson confirmed to POLITICO on Friday.

Adnan Mohamed, who was deputy national political director for Rep. Seth Moulton’s presidential campaign, has been named national political director. Anna Korman, who worked with O’Rourke’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, at Precision Strategies, will be O'Rourke's national data director. And Morgan Hill, who was research director on Richard Cordray’s gubernatorial campaign in Ohio last year, will be national research director.

Lauren Hitt, who previously was communications director for former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s presidential campaign, has been hired as O’Rourke’s national director of rapid response.

Hitt’s departure from Hickenlooper’s campaign follows the earlier defection of Hickenlooper’s former national finance director, Dan Sorenson, who also went to O’Rourke’s campaign.

Partners from the law firm that represented financier Jeffrey Epstein a decade ago hosted a fundraiser for Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) the same day that the 2020 presidential candidate criticized the firm over its role in negotiating Epstein’s 2008 plea deal.

The Chicago fundraiser was headlined by Harris’s husband, lawyer Douglas Emhoff, last week, according to The Associated Press, which obtained an invitation to the event. Six partners from the law firm Kirkland & Ellis hosted that event, the AP reported.

Kirkland & Ellis represented Epstein more than a decade ago when the financier faced charges in Florida. Lawyers with the firm helped negotiate a plea deal for Epstein in which he pleaded guilty to a single count of soliciting prostitution from girls as young as 14.

Epstein’s arrest and indictment last week on charges of sex trafficking has brought renewed attention to his 2008 plea deal.