In the News
Movers & Shakers: Steve Hildebrand
Politics Magazine
April 2009
After 22 years in politics, Steve Hildebrand was searching for his one last hope when he found Barack Obama…
Politics: You were with the president at the formative stages of his campaign in 2006. What was it like at a time when there weren’t too many people who actually thought he’d be the next president?
Hildebrand: Well, I started with him in a real way in October of 2006. So I sat in those strategy meetings and helped write plans and budgets and that kind of stuff. In a selfish way for me, I had sort of lost faith in politics and government. It’s like every cycle it gets a little worse, with politicians becoming less bold and more concerned about reelection. I had been working in politics for 22 years, and I was looking at what we were faced with— mounting deficits, crazy social policies, a lack of willingness to deal with climate change, and nothing had really changed in the way of gay rights in all that time. I was just growing impatient and basically I was looking for my one last hope. When I met Barack and saw the kind of passion that people had for him, I thought maybe he was different and maybe he was the guy who was the one last hope. Once I got to know him, I became a true believer in a very short period of time.
