Former Obama Staffers Run for Office in California to Protect His Legacy

At least 20 alumni of the Obama administration are running for political office throughout the United States of America, and especially in California, to secure former President Barack Obama’s legacy.

California, a deep blue state that has voted for the Democrat in every presidential election since 1992, is seen as the headquarters of the so called “Resistance” movement progressives have waged against President Donald Trump.

“We have to let Trump know that we’re not all standing here watching him dismantle the legacy of President Obama,” Buffy Wicks, 39, who is running for California State Assembly in the Easy Bay’s District 15, told the San Jose Mercury News of her decision to run.

Wicks, who also worked with Hillary Clinton’s presidential election campaign, worked to organize advocacy groups supporting the passage of the Affordable Care Act while Obama was in office. Her name is listed on the Obama Alumni Association website along with 21 other alumnae of the Obama administration who are running for local to national political office.

However, the San Jose Mercury News notes that Wicks and other Obama alumnus are running for local office simply because “they are 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 Obama’s hard-won policies as the Trump administration tries to put them through a wood-chipper.”

Ammar Campa-Najjar, 28, who is challenging Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) in District 50, is another Obama alumni, and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who unseated fellow Democrat Mike Honda in November, was a former Commerce official in the Obama administration.

Kelly Fitzpatrick-Gonez, 29, who interned on Obama’s campaign, ran and won a seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education in District 6 this year.

Jim Brulte, chairman of the California Republican Party, told the San Jose Mercury News that while “it’s not unusual for people who served in presidential administrations or campaigns to run for office in their home states, it seems like with (Obama staffers) it’s more organized than in previous administrations.”

Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.