Obama Sends Top ‘Get Out the Vote’ Operative to Brown Funeral

Guest post by Kristinn Taylor

marlon marshall
Marlon Marshall, White House photo

Marlon Marshall, a St. Louis native who just happens to be an experienced get out the vote operative for President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, was sent by Obama as part of the White House’s three person, all-black delegation to the Monday funeral of Michael Brown, the unarmed 18 year old black robber shot in a confrontation by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9.

Coincidentally, Politico reported a call to mourners to register to vote was made during the funeral service.

“Other speakers at the funeral included Benjamin Crump, the lawyer who will represent the Brown family and has represented Trayvon Martin’s family in the past, and Rev. Charles Ewing, Brown’s uncle, who urged the audience to register and vote in order to make their voices heard.”

The other Obama representatives announced by the White House to attend the Brown funeral were Broderick Johnson and Heather Foster. Johnson’s title is Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary. Johnson also chairs Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force. Foster’s title is Public Engagement Advisor.

The heavy presence of Obama administration officials at the funeral compared to other notables’ funerals has raised questions about the White House’s motivations.

Marshall has been part of the Obama apparatus since 2008 after initially working for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Marshall has since seen the light and has been rewarded with several campaign and White House positions over the past six years.

Marshall’s current position with Obama is Special Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy Director of Public Engagement.

In January 2013, Politico reported on Marshall’s experience in an article about a political consulting firm he was joining as a founding partner with other Obama operatives.

“Mitch Stewart, former Obama for America battleground states director, and Jeremy Bird, former Obama for America national field director, are starting a new grassroots organizing firm — called 270 Strategies [270 electoral votes to win] — to help clients build people-centered, data-driven, digitally-sophisticated campaigns by applying the historic Obama organizing model to campaigns of any kind…

“…Marlon Marshall, Bird’s deputy on the campaign; Mark Beatty, Stewart’s deputy; and Meg Ansara and Lauren Kidwell, former OFA regional directors, also will join the firm as partners. Together, this team has played a multitude of roles in building the Obama grassroots organization since the 2007 Iowa caucuses. 270 Strategies is founded on the belief that grassroots campaigns can change the world. Twitter: @270Strategies

“The firm will open offices in Chicago and Washington, DC. Obama’s grassroots network — led by Bird and Stewart — included 10,000 neighborhood team leaders, 30,000 core team members and 2 million volunteers, Playbook reports. It was credited with registering 1.8 million voters, “holding millions of persuasion conversations with targeted voters, and replicating the 2008 electorate across battleground states.””

When Marshall returned to the White House in September 2013, 270 Strategies described his experience as a Democratic political operative in a press release.

…“Marshall previously served as the Deputy National Field Director for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, where he helped lead its unprecedented targeted voter registration and get-out-the-vote programs and was central to a field program that far outpaced previous efforts in 2008 and beyond. He joined the Obama campaign team as Missouri General Election Director in 2008 after initially working as Field Director in Nevada, Ohio, and Indiana for the presidential campaign of then-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“Between the last two presidential cycles, Marshall was first the National Field Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee – overseeing the team that designed and implemented field plans for targeted congressional races across the country – and was later appointed as the organization’s Deputy Executive Director.

A prescient 2009 profile of the then 29 year-old Marshall as one The Root’s Ten Young Black Obama Aides to Watch in Washington mentioned his first appointment to the Obama administration as Deputy White House Liaison to the State Department and his early years as a young Democratic Party political operative.

When the Obama administration announced Marshall was attending the Brown funeral on behalf of the White House, the press was told Marshall was a St. Louis native who went to high school with Brown’s mother.

The Obama administration did not mention Marshall is also an experienced get out the vote operative for Obama and the Democrats.

Obama and the Democrats are reportedly desperate to get out the vote in the black community for the 2014 mid-term elections to hold the Senate for the last two years of Obama’s presidency, as Politico reported Saturday.

As the saying goes, there are no coincidences in politics.
Hat Tip maggief, Free Republic

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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