Instead of chasing big money after graduating from Yale, Yohannes decided to head to Iowa to chase hope instead.

posted:  Monday, July 19, 2010


Yohannes Abraham

Age: 23

Hometown:  Springfield, VA

In retrospect, 2008 was a year of change in many ways.  Of course, Obama would go on to be elected the first African-American president of the United States.  However, there is a back story to this historical moment, a story of contribution, sacrifice, and achievement of countless Ethiopian-Americans who took part in the campaign of a lifetime. The Obama campaign, unlike any campaign in the past, hired Ethiopian-Americans throughout the United States to galvanize voters to believe in hope and change.  Organizers such as Cisco Robinson, Million Fikre, Selam Mulugeta, Nathania Woldu to name but a few were dispatched in Iowa, Colorado, Oregon, Minnesota, Texas, Virginia, and the rest of the United States to make the unthinkable happen.

No one can say that the contributions of one of these individuals were more important than the other.  The magnificence of the Obama campaign was that it demanded from the staff a belief in teamwork and a sacrifice of one’s ego for the sake of the whole.  It is this quality that made Yohannes Abraham a shining example of the efficiency of the Obama campaign.  A recent graduate from Yale University in 2007, Yohannes it seemed had the world before him.  However, he was captivated by the promise that a Senator from Illinois named Obama represented.  Instead of chasing big money, Yohannes decided to head to Iowa to chase hope instead.  Yohannes spent 7 months helping to put together a ground organization in Iowa that would eventually overwhelm Hillary Clinton.

His talent and dedication did not go unnoticed by senior staffers within the Obama campaign.  At the age of 22, after providing invaluable leadership in states like South Carolina, Mississippi, and Ohio, Yohannes became the Field Director of Virginia—a state deemed vital by the Obama campaign.  Yohannes, along with hundreds of Ethiopian-American staffers and volunteers, made it possible for Obama to get elected on November 4th, 2008.  After the election, Yohannes went on to become the Assistant to the Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs for the White House and recently transitioned to become the Political Director for Organizing for America.  Yohannes continues to remind us that change is not something that is delivered overnight by one man; change is something that takes time and dedication from all of us working as a team.