It’s no secret that winning the Iowa caucus is an important first step to the success of a presidential nomination.
However, Nebraska, not Iowa, might play a more pivotal role for Democratic hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign as he recently named Omaha native, and Creighton alumna, Symone Sanders as his national press secretary.
Symone’s political journey started back when she joined Girls, Inc. of Omaha, a program that encourages girls to get interested in the political process. When former President Bill Clinton came to speak at a function, Symone boldly lobbied to introduce him. She made the most of the opportunity, delivering an introduction that was so good Clinton admitted he didn’t know how to follow her, and he later mentioned her by name in his book Giving.
As an undergraduate at Creighton, Symone quickly immersed herself in several internship opportunities offered by the College of Business.
As a national intern at Girls, Inc. in Washington, D.C., she found she wanted to live permanently in the District. After noticing that many successful people in politics had international experience, she worked for a while at a publications company in Beijing. She advocated for economic and juvenile justice, even serving as the national youth chair for the campaign for juvenile justice. Closer to home, Symone worked for former Omaha mayor Jim Suttle from 2011-12 and gubernatorial nominee Chuck Hassebrook in 2014.
When the chance surfaced for her to work for Bernie Sanders, it was an easy decision.
“I’m lucky that the things that I care about, those are the issues that senator (Sanders) cares about,” Symone said. “The issues that are important to him are the ones that are important to me and the American people.”
Symone was not given much time to adjust to her role as press secretary, being asked to introduce Bernie Sanders at major events in Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles within a couple weeks of being hired.
Bernie Sanders has made it clear throughout his campaign that he wants to talk about policy, and Symone happily shares in his passion regarding major issues. Some of the issues that have taken center stage so far in Bernie Sanders’s campaign have been prison and juvenile justice reform, the wealth gap and income inequality, repealing Citizens United, taking care of the environment in the face of climate change and mandatory minimums, among others.
Symone highlighted some of the most pressing issues of the campaign with
statistical evidence:
“The unemployment rate for young African-Americans is 51 percent, young Latinos 36 percent and 30 percent for whites. These numbers should be jarring for anyone,” she said.
While Symone’s new job will send her all over the country, she still keeps strong ties to her roots in Omaha. Her mother, Terri Sanders, is the executive director of the Great Plains Black History Museum and teaches at the Mildred D. Brown Memorial Study Center. Terri extended her passion for the Omaha community to Symone, and both mother and daughter share Creighton as their alma mater.
Symone credits Creighton’s strong service foundation and concern for the greater Omaha community as a catalyst for her interest in politics, and Terri said you can do anything with a Creighton degree.
While Symone ultimately hopes for a successful campaign for Bernie, she does offer one final piece of advice to anyone thinking about the upcoming presidential election.
“Be educated about the candidates up and down the ticket, whether national or local,” Symone said. “Make sure you are registered to vote; it’s important that we hold our voting rights near and dear and make a difference.”