Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina The White House’s political team was scrambling. Last month when Vice President KAMALA HARRIS wanted to meet with Texas state legislators to bolster her voting rights profile, both her team and the White House’s political operation neglected to invite several who were original endorsers of JOE BIDEN’s 2020 campaign. In backing Biden in the primary, many of those legislators had snubbed fellow Texans JULIÁN CASTRO and BETO O’ROURKE. Now, that risk they’d taken in offering their support was going unrewarded. State Sen. JOSÉ MENÉNDEZ said he’d talked to Texas Democrats who were “frustrated and upset that people who had been early on the campaign weren’t invited,” but added that he wasn’t all that worked up about initially being left off the list. “I don’t know who put the list together but I’m not gonna begrudge anybody.” He said someone from the White House called him after the initial invites had gone out, apologized, and extended a belated invitation. Ultimately, he and several other endorsers went to the White House for the event. The behind-the-scenes damage control, which has not previously been reported, drew internal White House scrutiny of the political shop overseen by deputy chief of staff JEN O’MALLEY DILLON (often referred to as "JOD" in the White House). While Biden’s senior adviser roles are filled by loyalists, his political shop does not include many people from his primary campaign. Political director EMMY RUIZ, who has been based in Texas, worked on Harris’ 2020 campaign; DEIRDRE SCHIFELING didn’t work on any primary campaign; deputy director of strategic outreach NATALIE MONTELONGO worked on Castro’s and before joining Massachusetts Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN’s; associate director of strategic planning MORGAN MOHR worked on Treasury Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG’s; and associate director of strategic outreach ALEIGHA CAVALIER worked on O’Rourke’s. ERIN WILSON, Biden’s national political director during the campaign who is now Ruiz’s deputy, is the one of the few Biden originals on the political team, along with CARLA FRANK, the director of strategic planning. A White House official disputed that characterization, writing: “To the idea that the political team is exclusively somehow made up of, like, Biden outsiders, I would note that JOD literally was his campaign manager and that the political team all had early Biden-Harris connections.” O’Malley Dillon, who herself worked on O’Rourke’s campaign before being brought on board Biden’s, has at times frustrated Biden aides by favoring new faces. After she took over as Biden’s campaign manager last spring, she slowly elbowed aside ESTHER ONGERI, who had previously assisted campaign manager GREG SCHULTZ, and brought on SHREEYA PANIGRAHI, who worked on Buttigieg’s campaign, as her main assistant. Reached by phone, Ongeri declined to comment. The same White House official said Ongeri “didn’t want to be in an administrative role anymore, so the campaign promoted her into a different role that included work in areas she was happy and interested in.” O’Malley Dillon has also kept her longtime assistant, THOMAS WINSLOW , by her side for many years and he is now a powerful gatekeeper in the West Wing, according to people familiar with the dynamic. In a sign of his influence, Winslow’s current title is O’Malley Dillon’s senior adviser, and he has the same salary and “special assistant to the president” title as Wilson. More recently, SOPHIA RUBIO, who joined the Biden team in August of 2019, was moved from O’Malley Dillon’s office to the White House scheduling office. Before she left, Rubio was replaced by TAIWO DOSUNMU, who came from the Obama Foundation and consulting firm McKinsey and Company before that. Rubio did not respond to requests for comment. Several individuals familiar with the move said Rubio told people she was upset by it. White House deputy press secretary CHRIS MEAGHER denied that in a statement. “This fantastical story is actually really simple: Sophia Rubio is incredibly talented and moved roles – as people often do at the White House – to the scheduling and advance team for the President of the United States. To suggest it was anything other than a great opportunity is wrong. Jen has always been an advocate for the women around her in furthering their careers, including the women you mention in this piece.” As for the early lack of invitations to the Biden-endorsing Texas lawmakers, a White House official said they had closely coordinated with “Texas leadership for both meetings” and advised us to “reach out to” several members of the legislature, “unless you’re only look[ing] for someone to talk to who will agree to you[r] frame.” But by that point, Texas state Rep. CHRIS TURNER , chair of the House Democratic caucus in the state, had already called us unprompted (though clearly aware of our reporting) to say nice things about the Biden administration. “The White House has been exceedingly gracious to us and generous with their time and that includes the meeting back in June and especially the meeting two weeks ago.” Turner did acknowledge the lag on the invitations to early Biden endorsers but said “members were added to the initial meeting after a period of a few days.” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you JORDAN MONTOYA? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous s end us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here. | 
