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OAKLAND As one of Barack Obamas top political organizers, Buffy Wicks plotted national campaign strategy, mobilized support for the Affordable Care Act and helped marshal the thousands of volunteers who carried Obama to the White House.

Early on Thursday evening, Wicks stood in front of a circle of 14 voters in a sun-drenched living room in the Oakland hills, fielding questions about housing costs, charter schools and bicycle safety. This time, she was working on a very different campaign: her own state Assembly race.

Wicks is one of at least 20 former Obama administration staffers who have decided to seek elected office around the country in the eight months since President Donald Trumps election. From former interns to senior officials, theyre running for everything from school board to city council to Congress to governor.

Part of the inspiration is simply being out of a job. If Democrat Hillary Clinton had won the presidency, many would have been contenders for top White House posts.But most say they also feel a responsibility to protect Obamas hard-won policies as the Trump administration tries to put them through a wood-chipper.

We have to let Trump know that were not all standing here watching him dismantle the legacy of President Obama, said Wicks, 39.

Only a handful of Obama staffers quit their jobs to run for office in the eight years he was in the White House, including Obamas first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, now Chicagos mayor.But Trumps election accelerated a lot of peoples decision-making about wanting to serve and wanting to lead and get out there, said Jeremy Bird, another top organizer on Obamas campaigns.I dont know how many would have run without Trump.

It was a wake-up call to a lot of people in the administration, said Ben LaBolt, Obamas former campaign press secretary.

In his farewell addressin January, Obama encouraged his fans to start their own campaigns. If youre disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures and run for office yourself, he said. Show up. Dive in. Stay at it.

Many have taken that advice to heart.

Wicks, who grew up in a trailer in rural Placer County, joined the Obama campaign in 2007 as employee number 32 after stints on local campaigns and former Vermont Gov. Howard Deans presidential bid in 2004.

As the field director for Obamas California primary race, Wicks is credited with developing a model of grass-roots organizing that became the bedrock of his national campaign strategy. She adopted ideas from social movements, dividing volunteers into local teams and enlisting them to run the campaign neighborhood by neighborhood.

In the White House, Wicks organized advocacy groups supporting the passage of the Affordable Care Act. She still remembers sitting in the Roosevelt Room with Obama and other senior staffers watching the final votes come in.

Seeing Trump and Republicans work to repeal Obamacare helped prod her to run, Wicks said. They are literally trying to defund and take away health care from the most vulnerable in our society in order to give the wealthy tax breaks, she said.

Wicks, who also ran Hillary Clintons 2016 California primary campaign, moved to Oakland a year and a half ago. Her campaign to represent the 15th Assembly District which includes Richmond, Berkeley and north Oakland has ruffled some feathers among the other candidates: local office holders who have lived here for decades.

Voters want people who have been doing the work of standing and fighting alongside the residents not someone who has lived in a district for just one year, said Jovanka Beckles, a Richmond City Council member whos also running for Assembly.

I get that Im an unorthodox candidate, Wicks said, but I had my daughter in this district. I bought my home in this district. Im committed to this district.

The star of Wicks campaign events is Josephine, her rosy-cheeked 7-month-old daughter, whose duedate was Nov. 8, 2016. I thought she would be born the day we elected our first woman president, Wicks said. Then Trump won, and Josephine waited she was born two weeks later, on Thanksgiving. That was her first act of civil disobedience, Wicks joked.

Other Obama staffers running for office in California include Ammar Campa-Najjar, 28, who jumped into a San Diego congressional race this year.

Obamas 2008 victory was revelatory for Campa-Najjar,the son of a Mexican mother and a Palestinian father, who at the time was a brooding, biracial kid struggling to define his identity.

Campa-Najjar organized volunteers as San Diego field director on Obamas re-election campaign, interned at the White House reading letters sent to the president, and worked in the Labor Department helping develop job-training programs.

Obama gave me this ticket to my dreams to serve in Washington, he said. But it was always a round-trip ticket Id always come back home and serve.

Hes one of several Democrats challenging Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican in one of the most Republican districts in California. Campa-Najjar said hes planning to do the Obama model of campaigning and focus on a strong ground game.

Kelly Gonez, 29, interned on Obamas campaign and worked as a policy adviser inthe Department of Education before running for and winning a seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education earlier this year.

Im a very introverted person, so being in elected office was not something I pictured for myself, the former science teacher said. But Trumps election made her realize that her work for the federal government helpingwrite handbooks for educators about how to support undocumented students and consulting on policies banning immigration enforcement activity in schools was under threat.

Seeing someone try to take away undocumented kids opportunity to get a good public education made me think a voice like mine was needed, she said.Besides, she added, the fact that Trump became president helped alleviate her doubts that she was qualified for school board.

Other Obama administration veterans turned California candidates include Jeff Bleich, a former presidential counsel and ambassador to Australia, whos running for lieutenant governor; Eleni Kounalakis, Obamas ambassador to Hungary, whos also a candidate for lieutenant governor; and Alejandra Campoverdi, the former White House deputy director of Hispanic media, who ran unsuccessfully in the special election for a Los Angeles congressional seat earlier this year.

Obama himself isnt expected to make many endorsements or campaign appearances, but his alumni network isa powerful support group for candidates launching their first campaigns. Candidates such as Wicks can turn to their former colleagues for a leg-up in raising money, recruiting staffers, earning endorsements and fine-tuning campaign strategy.

Its not unusual for people who served in presidential administrations or campaigns to run for office in their home states, said Jim Brulte, chairman of the California Republican Party. But it seems like with (Obama staffers) its more organized than in previous administrations.

For his part, Obama is watching his former staffers take up the mantle from afar, Kevin Lewis, Obamas post-presidential spokesman, said in an email:

It doesnt surprise him that the staff that joined him on (his) journey, and worked every day on behalf of the American people in the Obama administration, are emerging as the next generation of leaders and elected officials.

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Former Obama staffers say they're running for office to protect his legacy - The Mercury News