The Obama administration’s top aide in charge of promoting Obamacare enrollment is leaving the White House, possibly with eyes on helping another Democrat win the job in 2016.
Marlon Marshall, an aide to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, is leaving the White House to rejoin 270 Strategies, a Democratic consulting firm he helped found.
“I am thrilled today to announce I will be returning to the management team of 270 Strategies,” Marshall, who served as deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, said in a statement. “I want to thank the President for the opportunity to serve and Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett for being an amazing boss and mentor.”
Word of Marshall’s departure from the White House had been rumored for months, both inside and outside 270 Strategies. Buzzfeed reported in December that he was thought to rejoin the consulting firm and the Washington Post broke the story Friday morning.
The now former White House aide is close with Roby Mook, an operative who many Democrats see as the frontrunner for Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager job. Mook and Marshall worked together on Clinton and Obama’s 2008 campaigns and share a small group of confidants and friends. If Mook is tapped for the top campaign job, Marshall is expected to get a top position, too.
The Mook-Marshall oddly played out last year when emails for a group of people – the self-proclaimed “Mook Mafia” — were leaked to ABC. In them, Marshall — who refers to himself as “Reverend” – congratulated friends working on campaigns for “crushing it mafia style.”
“F U Republicans. Mafia till I die,” Marshall wrote in one email obtained by ABC. “If you have just a few minutes, hop on that activate and punish those voters!”
Marshall said he was returning to 270 Strategies because of the group’s commitment to “doing big things and having a meaningful impact on the issues and communities we care about.”
“It was our deep-seated belief that grassroots organizing is a necessary component to making change in those communities,” Marshall said. “Today, the 270 mission is stronger than ever, and I could not be more excited to rejoin the team.”