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Robby Mook

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Robby Mook
Robby Mook 2006.jpg
Mook in 2006
Campaign Manager to Hillary Clinton
Assumed office
April 12, 2015
Personal details
Born (1979-12-03) December 3, 1979 (age 36)
Sharon, Vermont, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Alma mater Columbia University
Occupation Political strategist

Robert E. “Robby” Mook (/mʊk/; born December 3, 1979) is an American political campaign strategist and campaign manager. He was the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton's failed 2016 presidential campaign.

While in high school, Mook served as a volunteer for a teacher's reelection campaign to the Vermont House of Representatives. After college, he returned to Vermont to work for the Vermont Democratic Party. He worked on state campaigns, leading up to Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. Mook then joined the Democratic National Committee, and worked for Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign as a state director in three states.

Mook managed Senator Jeanne Shaheen's campaign as she ran in New Hampshire for election to the U.S. Senate in the fall of 2008, served as the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2012, and as the campaign manager for Terry McAuliffe's successful 2013 gubernatorial campaign.

Early life[edit]

Mook is from Sharon, Vermont, but was raised in nearby Norwich, across the river from Hanover, New Hampshire. His father is a physics professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, and his mother is a hospital administrator at Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center, in nearby Lebanon, New Hampshire.[1][2]

Mook attended Hanover High School, where Matt Dunne, a member of the Vermont House of Representatives, served as the theater director. Dunne met Mook when he auditioned for a school play, and Mook volunteered for Dunne's re-election campaign.[1][2] Mook graduated from Columbia University in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics.[2][3][4] Mook also served in the United States Senate Page program.[1]

Career[edit]

Robby Mook Get out the vote leaflet for the 2006 Maryland campaign

During the summer after Mook's freshman year at Columbia, Dunne hired Mook as the first paid staffer for the Vermont Democratic House Campaign, working to elect Democrats to the Vermont House.[1][4] Mook worked as a field director during the 2002 Vermont gubernatorial election, which the Democrats lost. He served as deputy field director during Dean's 2004 presidential campaign in Wisconsin and New Hampshire. He joined the Democratic National Committee after Dean lost the nomination to John Kerry, serving as director of the get out the vote effort in Wisconsin during the general election. He worked for David W. Marsden, managing a campaign that lost a Republican-held seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in 2005. In 2006, he coordinated the campaigns of Martin O'Malley, who defeated incumbent Bob Ehrlich in the Maryland gubernatorial election, and Ben Cardin, who defeated Michael Steele to win the United States Senate election.[2]

Mook joined Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign in 2007. He served as the campaign's state director for Nevada, Indiana, and Ohio. Clinton won the popular vote in all three states. Mook then managed Jeanne Shaheen's successful campaign for the United States Senate that fall.[2][5] Mook joined the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in 2009 as their political director, and was named independent expenditure director of the DCCC in May 2010.[6] After the 2010 House of Representatives elections, where the Democrats lost the majority, Mook was named executive director.[7] In the 2012 House of Representatives elections, he aided the Democrats in gaining eight seats,[5] though Democrats had aimed for the 25 seats needed to retake the majority.[4]

In 2013, Mook left the DCCC and was named the campaign manager of Terry McAuliffe's gubernatorial campaign.[3][5] That year, Politico named Mook one of their "50 Politicos to Watch."[8] Mook led McAuliffe's campaign to victory.[9]

In January 2015, Clinton hired Mook and Joel Benenson as strategists.[10]

Upon the April 2015 announcement of Clinton's 2016 campaign for president, Mook was introduced as Clinton's campaign manager.[11][12] In 2015, Mook was paid by the campaign at an annual rate of $121,000, which is somewhat lower than other presidential campaign managers and similar to that of other top Clinton staffers (such as communication director Jennifer Palmieri, finance director Dennis Cheng, and national political director Amanda Renteria).[13] According to the Washington Post, as Clinton's campaign manager Mook won praise "both inside the campaign and among Clinton’s vast circle of second-guessers, for the airtight and drama-free campaign he has built."[14] A group of about 150 young political operatives close to Mook have become known as the "Mook Mafia."[14][15]

In July 2016, a Democratic National Committee email leak occurred in July 2016 following a cyberattack that was identified by cybersecurity firms and the U.S. intelligence services as the work of two Russian state-sponsored hacking groups.[16][17] Mook stated that the Russians released the stolen material in order to aid the campaign of Republican nominee Donald Trump, noting Republican platform changes that adopted a more pro-Russian line and Trump's statement that, if elected president, he might not support NATO nations that came under attack from Russia. The Trump campaign dismissed Mook's theory.[18][19][20] CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity company, verified that it was Russian government supported hackers that hacked into the DNC.[21]

Personal life[edit]

Mook is the first openly gay manager of a major presidential campaign.[22][23]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Heintz, Paul (September 18, 2013). "Take Back Virginia? Old Dominion Dems Are Counting on Vermont-Born Robby Mook". Seven Days. Retrieved October 4, 2013. 
  2. ^ a b c d e Gonzales, Nathan L. (August 2, 2010). "DCCC Turns to Mook's Ground Game for Fall". The Rothenberg Political Report. Retrieved October 3, 2013. 
  3. ^ a b "Robby Mook". The Washington Post. September 26, 2013. Retrieved October 3, 2013. 
  4. ^ a b c "Political Strategist". Columbia College Today. Retrieved April 13, 2015. 
  5. ^ a b c Hunt, Albert R. (July 14, 2013). "Virginia Campaign Could Lift Strategist to Stardom". The New York Times. Retrieved October 4, 2013. 
  6. ^ Cillizza, Chris. "The Fix – House Democrats expand 2010 campaign team". Voices.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved October 4, 2013. 
  7. ^ Bentz, Leslie (December 6, 2010). "DCCC names Robby Mook as executive director". Political Ticker. CNN.com. Retrieved October 3, 2013. 
  8. ^ Burns, Alexander. "50 Politicos to Watch: Robby Mook". Politico. Retrieved January 7, 2015. 
  9. ^ Allen, Jonathan (December 22, 2014). "The Man Poised to Guide Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign". Bloomberg. Retrieved January 7, 2015. 
  10. ^ Haberman, Maggie (January 7, 2015). "Hillary Clinton brings in Robby Mook, Joel Benenson for likely team". Politico. Retrieved January 7, 2015. 
  11. ^ Karni, Annie (April 12, 2015). "Hillary Clinton formally announces 2016 run.". Politico. Retrieved April 13, 2015. 
  12. ^ Edward Helmore. "Can the geek who hates the spotlight guide Hillary to the White House?". the Guardian. Retrieved April 12, 2015. 
  13. ^ Theodoric Meyer, Rubio's campaign manager tops early salary list, Politico (July 16, 2015).
  14. ^ a b Karen Tumulty, In Nevada, Clinton's campaign manager faces his biggest test, Washington Post (February 19, 2016).
  15. ^ Aaron Blake, The Hillary 2016 campaign infighting begins even before the Hillary 2016 campaign begins, Washington Post (November 14, 2014).
  16. ^ David E. Sanger & Nick Corasaniti, D.N.C. Says Russian Hackers Penetrated Its Files, Including Dossier on Donald Trump, New York Times (June 14, 2016).
  17. ^ [David E. Sanger & Eric Schmitt, Spy Agency Consensus Grows That Russia Hacked D.N.C., New York Times (July 26, 2016).
  18. ^ David E. Sanger & Nicole Perlroth, As Democrats Gather, a Russian Subplot Raises Intrigue, New York Times (July 24, 2016).
  19. ^ Mook on DNC e-mail leak: Experts are now saying that the Russians are releasing these e-mails for the purpose of actually helping Donald Trump, State of the Union with Jake Tapper CNN (July 24, 2016).
  20. ^ Eric Bradner, Clinton's campaign manager: Russia helping Trump, CNN (July 25, 2016).
  21. ^ "Bears in the Midst: Intrusion into the Democratic National Committee, June 15, 2016"[1]
  22. ^ Kroll, Andy; Caldwell, Patrick (April 9, 2015). "Robby Mook just took the hardest job in politics: saving the Clintons from themselves.". Mother Jones. Retrieved April 13, 2015. 
  23. ^ McDonald, James. "Five Things We Know About Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton's Openly Gay Campaign Manager | Out Magazine". Out.com. Retrieved 2015-07-03. 

External links[edit]

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