Brussels Forum Session: Fresh Off the Campaign Trail: Stories From the 2024 US Primary
Addisu Demissie is a founding principal of California-based political consulting firm 50+1 Strategies and a senior adviser to Future Forward USA, the primary external organization supporting US President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. He has more than two decades of experience in advocacy and campaign strategy, and has led campaigns in the United States at the national, state, and local levels for electoral, nonprofit, and corporate clients.
Demissie managed successful campaigns for US Senator Cory Booker in 2013 and California Governor Gavin Newsom in 2018. He most recently served as the campaign manager for Booker’s 2020 run for the Democratic presidential nomination and was one of the lead organizers of the critically acclaimed 2020 Democratic National Convention. The Washington Post named him in 2009 one of the “Ten Young Black Aides To Watch” in the Barack Obama administration, in which he played a key role in mobilizing and coordinating grassroots support for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, federal student loan reform, and the Affordable Care Act. As political director for Obama’s political organization, Organizing for America, he also worked to gather support for the Affordable Care Act.
Demissie is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, and a member of the California State Bar. He serves on several nonprofit boards including those of Run for Something, Higher Ground Labs, Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence, and Vote Save America.