Dozens of Obama staffers run for office to save healthcare legacy

ANDY KIM was in hospital when he decided to run for Congress. Attending a check-up with his wife Kammy, pregnant with their second child, Mr Kim was told there were complications.

Their unborn son was underweight, the doctor informed them. The cause was unclear, but if the situation did not improve there was no guarantee the baby would survive after birth.

“I was terrified,” Mr Kim, 35, told The Daily Telegraph. “My wife and I were so scared. There was very little that we could do to control the situation.”

Sitting in a waiting room as the news sunk in, Mr Kim’s eyes were drawn to a television. On the screen were leading figures of the Republican Party, cheerily touting their determination to repeal Obamacare.

“That’s what it was for me,” said Mr Kim, remembering how he thought of those who would lose coverage if the 44th president’s healthcare legislation was wiped out.

“As a father of a baby boy that might have problems himself, that is what made me step up and run for Congress.”

But for Mr Kim there was another personal link too. For most of the last decade he had worked for Barack Obama. First he held positions in Mr Obama’s administration, as an Iraq expert at the state department and an adviser to Gen David Petraeus. Then he went to the White House, heading up Iraq policy in a role that saw him frequently in the Oval Office and situation room.

Mr Kim is not alone in his decision to run for office. No fewer than 67 former Obama staffers or administration figures are standing at the November mid-term elections – a number that keeps on rising.

Some are seeking positions at state level, others aiming for Washington.

But most share two traits – they have never run for office before and are determined to defend Mr Obama’s legacy.

Helping them is the Obama Alumni Association, a group comprising 15,000 former staffers and administration officials, which is seen as part-campaign organisation, part-friends reunited. The group has no outside funding or paid staff, relying instead on the good will of a few ex-obama aides, some of whom still work for the former president.

For Buffy Wicks, it was Mr Obama’s departing words as president that convinced her to run. She had been one of the first people hired to the one-time Illinois senator’s unlikely tilt at the 2008 presidency. She ran the operation in Missouri that year and is credited with co-designing the grassroots organisation model that thrust Mr Obama into the Oval Office. Now her own name will be on the ballot paper for the California State Assembly on Nov 6.

Ms Wicks was still reeling from Donald Trump’s out-of-the-blue victory when she listened to her old boss deliver his departing speech.

“If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try to talk with one in real life,” Mr Obama urged his supporters. “If something needs fixing, lace up your shoes and do some organising... Persevere.”