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Why He Matters

When Sen. John McCain conceded the state of Michigan in the 2008 presidential campaign, it was Michael Blake who leaned over and showed the soon-to-be president the news on his Blackberry. Blake  worked on the campaign trail in eight states, has run three successful state House campaigns in Michigan. He even spent a year working as a sportscaster at Comcast SportsNet in Chicago. In February 2009, he was appointed to his current position in the White House Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Oh, and he did all of this before his 27th birthday.

In his current position, Blake is responsible for coordinating outreach efforts to elected officials at the county and state levels, except for governors. He also spends a lot of time reaching out to African American communities throughout the country, addressing issues like education, jobs and healthcare.

“The main thing I’ve realized right now is, a lot of this is about information exchange and conversation,” Blake said in an October 7, 2009, interview. “Because if you share information on both sides, a lot of times you can realize what’s working, what’s not working, figure out the issues, and figure out a means to move forward.”

Path To Power

The Early Years

Michael Blake will tell you he was never supposed to be born. On Christmas Day 1982, his mother was too sick to have him and when the doctors delivered him via C-Section they found he had a heart murmur—a hole in his heart. “I tease [my mom] that I’m the best Christmas gift she ever had,” he said.

The youngest of seven kids between both of his parents, Blake has four older brothers and three older sisters. His family is from Jamaica, and they often struggled to make ends meet. Eventually they moved to New York City, where Blake grew up.

“A lot of people don’t make it out of the Bronx, New York,” Blake said. Not only did he make it out, but he came up with the money to get an education at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where he majored in broadcast journalism.

Shortly after graduating, Blake got a job as an associate producer at Comcast SportsNet in Chicago when the network launched.

The Shift to Public Service

“There was a point where I realized I wasn’t doing enough,” Blake said in June 2009 at a conference for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). So he moved to Michigan where he ran three campaigns for the state House of Representatives; all three were successful.

After the Democrats took the majority in the Michigan state House, Speaker Andy Dillon asked Blake to serve on his Cabinet, where he was the Director of External Affairs.

In 2006, he attended the Yes We Can leadership program, under then-Senator Barack Obama’s staff in Washington, D.C. In March 2007 Blake accepted a job on the Obama presidential campaign as the Deputy Political Director and Constituency Outreach Director in Iowa. Over the next year-and-a-half, he campaigned for Obama in South Carolina, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi and Pennsylvania, finally ending up back in Michigan as the campaign’s Deputy Director and Political Director.

The Road to the White House

What Blake expected would be a casual coffee date with his mentor in Chicago ended up being an offer to work on the presidential inauguration. In December 2008, Nate Tamarin asked Blake to help him run labor outreach for the event—and said he had less than a day to make a decision.

Blake accepted the offer, and on January 22, 2009 he received a surprising phone call from presidential advisor Valerie Jarrett.

“She called and left me a message on my phone that said, ‘Welcome to the White House,’” Blake said. “So it was a surreal experience.” He started his job in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and what was then the Office of Public Liaison (renamed the Office of Public Engagement in May 2009) on February 2, 2009.

The Issues

One of Blake’s main job responsibilities is African American outreach, an issue that he said he cares deeply about. From a policy standpoint, Blake said there are some major problems he hopes to address through talking with people and discovering their needs.

“There are structural inequalities that exist,” he said. “You have educational disparities that are out there. You have minority business practices and fairness issues that you’re constantly having to deal with…How do you educate people about green jobs and the green economy of the future? How do you make sure that people are aware of how to get H1N1 vaccinations?”

And though Blake said age “is just a number,” he takes pride in setting an example for other young people, particularly young black Americans.

“I do recognize the importance of what we’re doing for young adults and for the youth,” he said. “Because, let’s face it, if a kid is 11, 12, 13, or even younger than that, they will relate to pieces in their environment that they know, whether it be music, whether it be teachers, whether it be sports—or younger role models.”

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