WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House communications director Kate Bedingfield plans to step down from her position soon and will be replaced by Ben LaBolt, a veteran of Barack Obama's presidency, the White House announced on Friday.
The White House said Bedingfield, who opted to stay on last summer after announcing plans to depart, will leave at the end of February.
She has been President Joe Biden's communications director since he assumed the presidency in January 2021 and before that was deputy campaign manager for his successful 2020 presidential race.
LaBolt will be the first openly gay White House communications director, the White House announcement said.
He worked in the Obama White House as a deputy press secretary and as national press secretary for the Obama-Biden re-election campaign in 2012.
LaBolt served as the head of communications for the Supreme Court confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. In addition, he served during the Biden-Harris transition in late 2020 and early 2021 as an adviser on nominations.
In a statement, Biden said Bedingfield has been "a critical strategic voice from the very first day of my presidential campaign in 2019 and has been a key part of advancing my agenda in the White House."
"Ben has big shoes to fill. I look forward to welcoming him back as a first-rate communicator who’s shown his commitment to public service again and again, and who has a cutting-edge understanding of how Americans consume information," he said.