1. David Plouffe is an American political and business strategist best known as the campaign manager for Barack Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign.
33 Facts About David Plouffe
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David Plouffe was the senior advisor to Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign.
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David Plouffe is from a working-class Roman Catholic family, the son of Frances, a stay-at-home mother, and James Everett "Jim" Plouffe, a factory worker who later worked in marketing.
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David Plouffe left the University of Delaware prior to graduation in 1989 to pursue a full-time career in politics and he completed his full undergraduate degree in May 2010.
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David Plouffe later worked as a state field director for Harkin's unsuccessful 1992 presidential campaign.
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In 1994, Plouffe managed Delaware Attorney General Charles M Oberly's unsuccessful campaign against Senator William V Roth.
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David Plouffe was the campaign manager for Barack Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign.
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David Plouffe is credited with the campaign's overall strategy in the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, to focus on the first caucus in Iowa and on maximizing the number of pledged delegates, as opposed to focusing on states with primaries and the overall popular vote.
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David Plouffe is credited by The New Republic for Obama's success in the Iowa caucus and for crafting an overall strategy to prolong the primary past Super Tuesday.
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David Plouffe maintained discipline over communications, including controlling leaks and releasing information about the campaign on its terms.
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In June 2008, when then-Senator Obama clinched the Democratic Party nomination, he thanked David Plouffe for being the one "who never gets any credit, but has built the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States".
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David Plouffe began working as an outside senior adviser to the Obama administration in January 2009.
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David Plouffe later issued a video challenge for Obama supporters to buy a copy of his book on December 8,2009, to "Beat Sarah Palin" and her bestselling book for one day.
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David Plouffe signed with the Washington Speakers Bureau to give paid speeches and plans to engage in non-government consulting work.
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In May 2009, David Plouffe delivered the convocation address at Cornell University.
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In January 2011, David Plouffe joined the White House as Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor.
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David Plouffe attended the president on his domestic and overseas visits, including the May 2011 state visit to the UK.
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David Plouffe met with Hillary Clinton in mid-2013 to help out in her campaign for president, having claimed that Clinton approached him first.
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In September 2015, David Plouffe reportedly played a key role in convincing Vice President Joe Biden not to challenge Clinton, telling Biden "not to end his career in embarrassment with a third place finish in Iowa", according to multiple accounts of the meeting.
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David Plouffe had just raised $18.2 billion in its most recent funding round.
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Uber at the time was facing heavy regulatory hurdles and the hiring of David Plouffe was seen as a way for the company to get these regulations lifted.
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In January 2017, David Plouffe was hired by Mark Zuckerberg to lead policy and advocacy at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
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David Plouffe led a bipartisan policy board alongside Ken Mehlman where they announced policy members and worked to find opportunities to work with the government.
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In September 2019, David Plouffe was invited to join the board of directors of ACRONYM, a liberal nonprofit group focused on digital messaging, by CEO Tara McGowan.
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David Plouffe advises program work at ACRONYM and bolsters the organization's fundraising efforts.
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Plouffe hosts a podcast, Campaign HQ with David Plouffe, which is a partnership with Cadence13.
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David Plouffe has drawn criticism for his paid speaking engagements abroad while on hiatus from advising Obama.
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In early 2009, David Plouffe spoke in Baku, Azerbaijan, for $50,000.
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In December 2010, David Plouffe received $100,000 for two speeches in Nigeria from an affiliate of the South African telecommunications company MTN Group.
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White House spokesman Eric Schultz stated that David Plouffe had only spoken to the group about digital communications and cellular technology, and had declined to meet with the company's leadership.
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In February 2017, David Plouffe was fined $90,000 by the Chicago Board of Ethics for the violation of ethics rules when he failed to register as a lobbyist after contacting Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to help Uber with regulations for picking up travelers at Chicago airports.
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David Plouffe appeared on Race for the White House in the episode about the 1948 United States presidential election.
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David Plouffe is married to Olivia Morgan, a senior advisor to Maria Shriver's A Woman's Nation, a member of Obama's President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and Director of Federal Relations to then California Governor Gray Davis.