After yesterday’s vice presidential announcement, we can rejoice over having a woman on the ballot. And now, we can celebrate having a Black lesbian within the high-ups of our next possible administration.
Karine Jean-Pierre, an out lesbian who previously worked as Joe Biden’s senior campaign advisor, has been announced as the vice-presidential candidate’s chief of staff. She’s making history as the first Black person to serve as a vice-presidential hopeful’s chief of staff; together with Kamala Harris’ history-making nomination as the first woman of color on a major party ticket, the team is shattering glass ceilings left and right.
Karine “ambitious” Jean-Pierre is incredibly proud to be working to elect the Biden/Harris ticket. Let’s go!! https://t.co/Y3rNNz6qJG
— Karine Jean-Pierre (@K_JeanPierre) August 11, 2020
“Karine ‘ambitious’ Jean-Pierre is incredibly proud to be working to elect the Biden/Harris ticket,” the new chief of staff noted on Twitter. “Let’s go!!”
“I felt like this is my job as a mom to step in. I thought about my six-year-old and I thought about what kind of planet or world or country are we going to be leaving to her and her peers,” Jean-Pierre told Hollywood Life when she took the role as senior campaign advisor. Her thoughts, however, seem to translate directly to why she has chosen to take this new role as well. “I’m a Black woman, I’m a gay woman, and I’m an immigrant. And Donald Trump, he is someone who hates everything I am.”
Jean-Pierre has been working in politics since 2004 when she was a staffer for the John Edwards campaign. In 2008, she joined Barack Obama’s presidential campaign — she did so again in 2012. During Obama’s first term, Jean-Pierre worked in the White House Office of Political Affairs. In the 2016 election, she worked for Martin O’Malley’s campaign.
Other than political campaign work, Jean-Pierre has been the national spokesperson for MoveOn, a progressive political action committee (PAC). She has also worked as a commentator for NBC News and MSNBC, as well as a lecturer at Columbia University.
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