Vance’s K Street Army Is Growing

Three top aides to Vice President JD Vance have decamped to high-priced and well-connected lobbying shops in the past two months, building out his Washington apparatus of policy and fundraising connections that could help fuel a potential 2028 campaign.

Sean Cooksey, the vice president’s former chief legal and policy adviser, left for BGR Group. Jim Durrett, former deputy chief of staff for operations, went to Invariant. Wesam Hassanein, former special adviser on the Middle East, went to Continental Strategy. Cooksey worked for Vance since the start of the second term. Durett and Hassanein joined his office last May.

The moves widen Vance’s connections in the lobbying and fundraising worlds that are typically needed in a presidential run. Should he decide to run for president in 2028, the network of former Vance aides who still feel loyal to the vice president could provide fundraising expertise and policy chops that can expand by working with clients and relationships with the private sector.

“The vice president’s outside network is small, but they are experienced and fiercely loyal,” said a person close to Vance’s team, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive topics. “Whatever he does, you can expect Vance alumni to jump into action to support him.”

Vance is a relative newcomer to Washington, having arrived a little more than three years ago as a freshman Ohio senator with little inside-the-beltway political network. Strong presidential candidates typically have circles of people from their D.C. internal government staff, home-state connections and a D.C. political network.

“Your D.C. political network [is] movers and shakers, people who can introduce you to Super PACs, people who can get you in front of the financiers and the titans of business,” said GOP lobbyist Stewart Verdery, CEO of Monument Advocacy. “The Vice President has already made that jump. He doesn't need some of that stuff, but the fact that some of his aides are moving into private sector positions just moves them from one circle on the chart to the other.”

The vice president’s office declined to comment.

When former President Joe Biden ran in 2020, he hada massive network of lobbyists, who worked for him during his lengthy political career, from the Senate to the vice president’s office. By contrast, when Kamala Harris – another former vice president with a relatively short Washington career – became the Democratic nominee in 2024,lobbyists rushed to get to know her world.

Biden “could capitalize on and benefit from a network of staffers who cycled through the revolving door from his Senate staff, the committee staffs, his campaign and consulting teams, or his VP office, into the private sector. There are layers upon layers of former aides-turned lobbyists, consultants, think tankers, lawyers, CEOs, ambassadors, and even elected officials whom he could, for the most part, count on for support, expertise, and financial backing,” said Michael LaRosa, former Biden special assistant, who left the White House shortly before the 2022 midterms.

Vance has not announced what he will do next but President Donald Trump is term-limited and has called Vance “fantastic.”

There are, of course, financial incentives to leave government work for K Street.

“It does make sense to try to use some of the time between now and then to make some money and to help him from a different seat, knowing that you might be called to go back in at a lower government salary if he was to win,” Verdery said.

As 2028 speculation swirls around the vice president, the recent moves downtown is a way for some in his orbit to stay close.

“Unlike Kamala Harris’s team, staff leaving Vance’s office have only positive things to say. They’re staying close to the White House and want the administration to succeed,” the person close to Vance’s team said.

Harris aides’departures made headlines the first year of the Biden administration and insiders described, at the time,a tense office atmosphere mired by chaotic moments.

“Vice President Vance has been in politics for several years, but is very new to Washington and has a very young staff. His connective tissue and relationships are still being nurtured and cultivated,” said LaRosa, a partner at the bipartisan but Trump-connected lobbying firm, Ballard Partners. “The plane is still being built in-flight, which is not dissimilar to the path his boss charted when he first ran.”

Trump’s Washington outsider role in 2016 and his pledge at the time to “drain the swamp” caused a scramble on K Street to make connections once he became the GOP nominee. But, his second administration has seen the so-called revolving door in motion, with senior aidesheading to government affairs gigs.

Vance has a similar outsider background, which includes fundraisers, influencers, and strategists that go beyond the perimeter of Washington. Hisinner circle during the 2024 race included Ohio strategist Jai Chabria and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, as well as strategists and pollsters considered a part of Trump’s inner circle.

GOP lobbyist Bruce Mehlman, a partner at Mehlman Consulting, argued that the network beyond D.C. is essential for a potential campaign.

“In an era of populist politics where trust in Washington is historically low, running an inside-the-beltway campaign visibly powered by famous swamp fixers is counterproductive and brand destructive,” Mehlman said.