Harris brings on a veteran of the Reid political machine

Vice President Kamala Harris is staffing up and tapping a top operative from Harry Reid’s famed Nevada political operation.

Megan Jones, a longtime aide to the former Senate leader, is joining the vice president’s office ahead of the midterm elections, three people familiar with the hire tell POLITICO.

Jones, who worked as a senior adviser to Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign in Nevada, is set to begin in the VP’s office this week in a temporary position as a special government employee, one of the people said. In the role, likely to last a few months, Jones is expected to help with political planning, outreach and coordination, said a second person, describing her as a reliable, no-nonsense operative.

Harris’ team is gearing up to deploy the VP into battleground states in the midterms, and her office has relied on a mix of aides and outside informal advisors to shape some of her speeches and help prepare for the new phase.

Jones’ arrival comes amid waves of staff departures and hires in the VP’s office, including a new chief of staff, an overhaul of its communications team, and changes to the speechwriter ranks.

Harris’ senior aides have tried to impart a sense of stability while the VP in recent weeks has focused extensively on fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision to end abortion rights, meeting with state lawmakers from around the country on the issue.

Jones, a partner at the consulting firm Hilltop, spent more than 20 years with Reid, joining his 1998 reelection, helping build out the state Democratic Party and working on numerous statewide and legislative races in addition to Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection.

Her clients have included the Mike Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety, Tom Steyer’s NextGen and the Western Conservation Foundation.