This Carver High graduate helped Joe Biden win the White House
The foundation for Kamau Marshall’s political career partly was laid in Columbus.
Marshall, 34, who arrived in the city as a middle schooler and left for college, served as President-elect Joe Biden’s Director of Strategic Communications during the 2020 Presidential campaign, working to rally a diverse coalition of voters around the former vice president’s White House bid.
Biden’s victory in Georgia was all the sweeter for Marshall. He’s still got family in Atlanta, and his time in Columbus influenced his path.
“I tell folks, I’m a city-country boy because Columbus is the smallest place that I ever lived in my entire life,” he said. “That small town, close-knit community plays a big role in what I do now. I love Columbus for that.”
‘Columbus was the foundation’
Marshall moved around a lot as a child — Chicago, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Birmingham, Atlanta and finally, Columbus, Georgia. His father was a minister, and Marshall compared the frequent moves to being part of a military family.
While his father preached from the pulpit of Beth Salem Presbyterian Church on St. Marys Road, Marshall further developed his interests in leadership and media as a student at Rothschild Middle School and later Carver High School.
At Carver, Marshall had his first internships, working with radio station Foxie 105 and news station WRBL. He also participated in a youth leadership program that connected him with community leaders.
“It started back there with the community involvement,” he said. “Columbus was the foundation.”
After graduating from Carver, Marshall attended Texas Southern University, a historically black college in Houston. He served as executive vice president of the school’s Student Government Association and worked on campaigns for members of the Texas state legislature.
Marshall got his first national political experience working for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election bid as a field organizer in Texas and Nevada. His journey to Biden’s campaign took him through several different D.C. jobs — from being a press, legislative and research fellow with U.S. Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware to serving as a special assistant to the late U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, who represented Marshall’s beloved Baltimore.
Marshall took a job in the Obama administration near the end of the president’s term, serving as a communications adviser and speechwriter for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He later served as communications director for Texas Congressman Al Green. Green initiated the first formal impeachment efforts against President Donald Trump during that time.
But Marshall said he thinks his work in 2018 is what might have gotten the Biden campaign’s attention. He served as African American media adviser and spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, working alongside the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis. That year, Democrats gained a net total of 41 seats in the House of Representatives.
“I think my work on taking back the House in 2018 — Getting so many members elected and using the strategies that I worked on — I think that was more impactful to me getting to work with (Biden) on his campaign,” he said.
Marshall’s behind-the-scenes work for Biden
Marshall took the job with Biden’s campaign in April 2019 — long before the primaries and Biden’s emergence as the front-runner following a strong Super Tuesday showing.
The Carver graduate was tasked with several responsibilities during the campaign, including coordinating with other staffers to shape Biden’s message on social justice issues following the death of George Floyd and the protests surrounding police brutality.
Other times, Marshall worked with famous surrogates and social media influencers who supported Biden. Marshall also coordinated the release of two campaign videos featuring Obama on the popular websites The Shade Room and The Young, Black and Fabulous ahead of the first presidential debate to reach young voters.
Marshall traveled to Georgia before the Democratic primary, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented him from visiting the state ahead of the election.
“My goal was to do impactful work to reach a mass amount of people,” Marshall said. “So a lot of those untraditional things, thinking outside of the box things — I was very behind the scenes with a lot of work I did.”
That work attracted attention from Republican operatives, Marshall said. In July, Fox News published an article on several of his old tweets, claiming Marshall “repeatedly posted sexist messages on social media over the past decade.”
Marshall did not provide a comment to Fox News for the article, but he did post a statement to his Facebook page a day after the article’s publication.
“As someone who values and respects women, it has never been or will ever be my intent to disrespect women. Period. The subtweets were from college and it was about a close friend,” a portion of the post reads. “She was not offended then or now. However, I sincerely apologize to those who could have misread it or don’t know me personally and who it may have offended.”
In an interview with the Ledger-Enquirer, Marshall called the Fox News article a “racial hit against (him).”
“I felt very disrespected. I felt like that was a hit against my character. That is not who I was then or now. Period.”
Biden’s victory and what comes next
Marshall recently took on a new role within the Biden camp. He’s now a senior adviser overseeing communications, media and outreach efforts for the president-elect’s inaugural committee.
As his political role changes, Marshall said he hopes the November election is a sign of things to come in Georgia politics. Biden’s victory was the first time a Democrat carried the state of Georgia since 1992, and the state’s two U.S. Senate runoffs will determine the balance of power in the chamber. Marshall called the president-elect’s victory in the state “a special moment.”
“One of our top surrogates was (Atlanta) Mayor (Keisha Lance) Bottoms. We already saw the work that Leader (Stacey) Abrams did in 2018,” he said. “ Hopefully, we see those results in the Senate races. We’re definitely keeping our fingers crossed. ... I’m not on the ground working there. But I see the work that’s happening there. I’m supporting as much as I possibly can.”
“Atlanta influences everything” he added. “The South has something to say.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 6:00 AM.