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Future Black Political Power couples.
Topic Started: Feb 14 2013, 09:00 AM (529 Views)
Mal

The next Barack and Michelle Obama are right around the corner, with a growing list of powerful Black political couples.

Andrew and R. Jai Gillum
These two Florida A&M University grads were married in 2009, but Andrew's political career took off years earlier when, as a college student, he addressed the 2001 Democratic National Convention on election violations in the state of Florida. Not long after, at age 23, he became the youngest person ever elected to the Tallahassee City Commission, where he was re-elected to a four-year term in 2008. R. Jai shares the passion for service and propensity for leadership, as executive director of the financial empowerment initiative The BEST Project at United Way of the Big Bend.

Chris and Adwoa Ansah Rey
Lawyer and Army Captain Chris Rey is the mayor of Spring Lake, N.C. Elected when he was just 34, he met wife Adwoa at a 2007 Democratic Retreat Issue Party and says, "I knew the moment I saw her I would marry her." She's the president and CEO of Faith Link, Inc., an organization designed to provide resources and support to the faith community, and a consultant to the Faith and Politics Institute.

Steven and Sonya Douglass Horsford
After serving as Nevada's first African-American state Senate majority leader, Steven went on to become the first person of color to represent his state in Congress. Sonya, who has a Ph.D. in education, is a senior resident scholar of education with the Lincy Institute at the University of Las Vegas, where she focuses on the history of education in the U.S., politics of education and the role of schools in society.

Quentin and Stefanie Brown James
These two Howard grads, who married in 2012, took their alma mater's "leadership for America and a global community" motto to heart. Formerly the national vote director for Obama for America, Stefanie is the CEO of Vestige Strategies LLC and the founder and CEO of Brown Girls Lead, Inc., a leadership development organization. Quentin, who was Ohio's deputy youth vote director for President Obama's 2008 campaign, is now the director of the Sierra Club's Student Coalition and sits on the national board of the NAACP.

Donald Calloway and Sarah Jane Forman
In 2008, Don won a seat in the Missouri House of Representatives, becoming one of the three youngest members of the General Assembly, and the only African-American attorney to serve in the legislature. After narrowly losing in his bid for the Democratic primary for the Missouri Senate, 14th District, in 2010, he became director of state government affairs at Anheuser-Busch InBev. Sarah Jane is an assistant professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, where she teaches the Youth Justice Clinic, supervising law students who represent youth in delinquency, special education and school disciplinary proceedings, as well as teaching a juvenile justice course. The two attorneys, who met when they were law students in Boston, were married in 2007.

Taj and Tonika Cheek Clayton
Taj and Tonika met as high school seniors visiting Harvard College, and three weeks into their freshman year, they were a couple. She went on to the Business School, and he to the Law School, and they married in January 2000. Tonika is a Regional Vice President at the technology company Wireless Generation. Taj is an attorney at the international law firm of Fish & Richardson, and he's been recognized as a "Rising Star" by Texas Super Lawyers magazine.

Anton Gunn and Tiffany Johnson-Gunn
Anton is the director of external affairs in the Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs (IEA) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Before his federal service, Anton served in the South Carolina House of Representatives -- the first African American in his district to be elected. Tiffany is a health and wellness consultant and distributor for Ardyss International, where, she says, "I work, interact and effectively communicate with diverse populations to provide wealth and health principles that deliver results."
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Mal

It is great that there are so many black couples that support each other in the home and in the work place.

William and Michele Jawando

Named one of the 40 under 40 most influential people on Capitol Hill, Michele is general counsel and senior adviser in the office of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). William, who previously served as the director of congressional relations for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, the director of strategic partnerships at the U.S Department of Education and the associate director of the White House office of public engagement, is now director of Corporate & Government Affairs at Discovery Communications.
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