Ben LaBolt
LaBolt in 2024
Senior Advisor to the President for Communications
In office August 8, 2024 – January 20, 2025
President	Joe Biden
Preceded by	Anita Dunn
White House Communications Director
In office March 1, 2023 – January 20, 2025
President	Joe Biden
Deputy	Kate Berner Kristen Orthman Herbie Ziskend
Preceded by	Kate Bedingfield
Succeeded by	Steven Cheung
Personal details
Born	(1981-08-20)August 20, 1981 (age 44) Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	Middlebury College (BA)

Ben LaBolt (born August 20, 1981) is a political advisor who served as theWhite House Communications Director for PresidentJoe Biden. He succeededKate Bedingfield in the role when she stepped down at the end of February 2023. In August 2024, LaBolt was promoted toSenior Advisor to the President succeedingAnita Dunn after her departure.^[1]

After leaving the White House, LaBolt returned to Bully Pulpit International as President.^[2]

Previously, LaBolt served as deputy White House Press Secretary in the Obama Administration^[3] and worked on presidential campaigns forBarack Obama andHoward Dean, as well as forJan Schakowsky,Sherrod Brown, andRahm Emanuel.

LaBolt was born August 20, 1981.^[4] He is fromLa Grange, Illinois. He graduated fromLyons Township High School andMiddlebury College, earning abachelor's degree inpolitical science in 2003. At Middlebury, he was president of theCollege Democrats and volunteered onHoward Dean's2000 reelection campaign asgovernor of Vermont.^[5]

LaBolt's first job out of college was for Dean's2004 presidential campaign. He worked as the press secretary forU.S. RepresentativeJan Schakowsky,^[5] forSherrod Brown's2006 Senate campaign, and forBarack Obama's Senate office.

After working as then-Sen. Obama's press secretary, LaBolt served as Obama's senior national spokesman during the 2008 presidential campaign.^[6] He joined the White House team as assistant press secretary, specializing in justice, energy, and the environment, as well as spokesman for the White House Counsel,^[7] and helping with the confirmation efforts of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.^[8]

In October 2010, LaBolt became communications director forRahm Emanuel during the2011 Chicago mayoral election.^[9] After the campaign, he served as the national press secretary for Obama's2012 presidential campaign,^[10] building the communications team from the ground up and served as the on-camera spokesperson.^[11]

In June 2013, LaBolt andRobert Gibbs co-founded a strategic communications practice called The Incite Agency,^[12] which later merged with Bully Pulpit Interactive (BPI).^[13] LaBolt became apartner at BPI.^[9] There he advised high growth startups such Instacart, Airbnb, Sonos, Uber,^[14] Coinbase,^[15]Meta,Google,YouTube,Bloomberg Philanthropies, and others.

LaBolt worked on thepresidential transition of Joe Biden following the2020 United States presidential election and as head of communications for theKetanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination in 2022.^[16][13] He succeededKate Bedingfield as White House Communications Director on March 1, 2023.^[17][18] In August 2024, LaBolt was promoted to Senior Advisor to the President, taking on broad strategy and advising the president.^[19]

Following the end of the Biden Administration in 2025, LaBolt rejoined Bully Pulpit. In his new role as President at BPI, he supports international communications and policy priorities, shares BPI's point of view at events and meetings around the world, and leverages his public- and private-sector relationships to grow the business.^[20]

LaBolt is openlygay, and is the first openly gay White House Communications Director.^[13][17] Growing up, he was trained at the Players Workshop of The Second City and in college he was a member of the Otter Nonsense Players, which has spawned a number of writers for late night show hosts from David Letterman to Stephen Colbert.^[21]

• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 1981 births
• 21st-century American LGBTQ people
• American gay politicians
• American press secretaries
• Biden administration personnel
• LGBTQ appointed officials in the United States
• LGBTQ people from Illinois
• Living people
• Middlebury College alumni
• Obama administration personnel
• People from La Grange, Illinois
• White House communications directors

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from February 2023
• People appearing on C-SPAN