Michael Blake

Associate Director, White House Office of Public Engagement/Deputy Associate Director, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (since February 2009)

(Matt Schrock / Medill News Service)

Why He Matters

When Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) conceded the state of Michigan in the 2008 presidential campaign, it was Blake who leaned over and shared the news with the soon-to-be president on his Blackberry. Blake worked on Barack Obama's campaign in eight states. Before that, he ran three successful state House campaigns in Michigan. He even spent a year working as a sportscaster at Comcast SportsNet in Chicago.

Oh, and he did all of this before his 27th birthday.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Labor outreach, presidential inauguration (2008-2009); Michigan's Deputy Director and Political Director, Obama presidential campaign (2008); Iowa's Deputy Political Director and Constituency Outreach Director, Obama presidential campaign (2007)
Birthday: Dec. 25, 1982
Hometown: New York City, New York
Alma Mater: Northwestern University, Bachelor of Science, Journalism, 2004

Spouse: Single
Religion: African Methodist Episcopal Church
Office: The White House

Path to Power

Blake will tell you he was never supposed to be born.

On Christmas Day 1982, his mother was too sick for natural childbirth, and when the doctors delivered him via C-section they found he had a heart murmur-a hole in his heart. "I tease [my mom] that I'm the best Christmas gift she ever had," he said.

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The youngest of seven kids between both of his parents, Blake has four older brothers and three older sisters. His family is from Jamaica, and they often struggled to make ends meet. Eventually they moved to New York City, where Blake grew up."A lot of people don't make it out of The Bronx, New York," Blake said.

Not only did he make it out, but he found the money to get an education at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where he majored in broadcast journalism.

Shortly after graduating, Blake got a job as an associate producer at Comcast SportsNet in Chicago when the network launched.

The Shift to Public Service

"There was a point where I realized I wasn't doing enough," Blake said in June 2009 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) conference. So he moved to Michigan where he ran three campaigns for the state House of Representatives; all three were successful.

After Democrats took the majority in the Michigan state House, Speaker Andy Dillon (D) asked Blake to serve in his cabinet, where he was the director of External Affairs.

In 2006, he attended the "Yes We Can" leadership program, which was sponsored by then-Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) staff in Washington, D.C. In March 2007, Blake accepted a job on the Obama presidential campaign as the deputy political director and constituency outreach director in the key state of Iowa, where Obama shot to frontrunner status after winning the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

Over the next year-and-a-half, Blake campaigned for Obama in South Carolina, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi and Pennsylvania, finally ending up back in the swing state of Michigan as the campaign's deputy director and political director.

The Road to the White House

What Blake expected would be a casual coffee date with his mentor in Chicago ended up being an offer to work on the presidential inauguration committee. In December 2008, Obama staffer Nate Tamarin asked Blake to help him run labor outreach for the event-giving him less than a day to make a decision.

Blake accepted the offer, and on Jan. 22, 2009, the day after Obama was installed as president, he received a surprising call from presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett.

"She called and left me a message on my phone that said, 'Welcome to the White House,'" Blake said. "So it was a surreal experience." On Feb. 2, 2009, He started his job in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and what was then the Office of Public Liaison (renamed the Office of Public Engagement in May 2009)

The Issues

One of Blake's main job responsibilities is African-American outreach, an issue that he said he cares deeply about. From a policy standpoint, Blake said there are some major problems he hopes to address through talking with the community and discovering its needs.

"There are structural inequalities that exist," he said. "You have educational disparities that are out there. You have minority business practices and fairness issues that you're constantly having to deal withHow do you educate people about green jobs and the green economy of the future? How do you make sure that people are aware of how to get H1N1 vaccinations?"

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The Network

The leaders who Blake works with in the White House are Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser and assistant to the president for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement; Christina M. Tchen, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to the assistant to the president for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Engagement and Cecilia Munoz, director of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Other staffers Blake works with include Brian Bond, Buffy Wicks, David Agnew, Ashley Baia, Michael Block, Danielle Borrin, Anne Brewer, Kareem Dale, Matthew Flavin, Jodi A. Gillette, Chelsea Kammerer, Joe Kennedy, Lisa Kohnke, Shaun McGrath, D. Paul Monteiro, Greg Nelson, John Oxtoby, Nick Rathod, Susan S. Sher, Matt Tranchin, Stephanie Valencia and Jenny Yeager.

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Additional Resources