Clinton Staffers Meet With Diversity Hiring Group

Inclusv launched last month to increase the number of minorities on Democratic campaigns.

Top staffers for Hillary Clinton met with members of Inclusv, a diversity hiring effort campaign, in New York on Wednesday to discuss hiring for a wide range of positions in the expected Clinton campaign, sources familiar with the meeting confirmed to BuzzFeed News.

Three staffers from Hillary Clinton's campaign-in-waiting — Marlon Marshall, Brynne Craig, and Bernard Coleman — met with Inclusv co-founders Alida Garcia and Steve Phillips, who is a major Democratic donor, and Quentin James, who is Ready for Hillary's black Americans director. James was present in his capacity with Inclusv.

Clinton's campaign has already placed black operatives in key roles, mid-levels posts ranging from political to field to communications at the national headquarters in New York, and out in the early primary states. A source close to the campaign argued Clinton's could be unlike any campaign in recent history in terms of developing a diverse pool and pipeline of political talent.

Bernard Coleman is the campaign's director of human resources, and Marshall is director of state campaigns and political engagement. Craig was recently tapped as the Clinton campaign's deputy national political director. Their hires have been widely lauded in Democratic circles as early evidence that the yet-to-be announced Clinton campaign is building momentum around a robust, diverse team leading up to her announcement.

The point of the meeting was to figure out how Inclusv and its co-founders might best work together leading up to and during Clinton's campaign launch and collaborate during the course of a potential campaign.

Sources familiar with the meeting said members of her Clinton's team reached out to Inclusv, and not the other way around.

Last month, Phillips told BuzzFeed News that increasing diversity on campaigns is key to winning the presidential election in 2016.

"I'm genuinely concerned progressives are going to lose elections if we don't increase our cultural competence in campaigns," he said. "That's what happened in 2010 and 2014, those campaigns were unable to inspire turnout of voters of color."

Skip to footer