Man on the Beat: Tom Evans

Weinberg junior Tom Evans is probably the only Northwestern student who has met President-elect Barack Obama 12 times. Working Obama’s campaign for 10 months, starting as a student volunteer and eventually moving up to deputy African-American finance director , Evans raised $7 million for the Obama campaign. Along the way, he hugged Alicia Keys and Spike Lee, had whiskey shots bought for him by Reverend Al Sharpton, and rode in Donna Brazile’s limo.

How did you get involved with the Obama
campaign?
I started volunteering last February at the national headquarters in downtown Chicago. I would go down there and answer phones during the primaries. After Super Tuesday, they offered me a position interning in the finance department. Midway through summer, when it was apparent he was the presidential nominee, I was offered a full-time position as deputy African-American finance director.

What was the most effective strategy in raising money?
For fundraisers with Barack and Michelle, we had to come up with proposals that assured we could make over $1 million. In doing that, we had to look at databases and see who donated in the past and when. It was about reaching out to people and building relationships and trust. It sounds like it’s not that hard, but when I’m a 20-year-old college student on the phone with the CFO of Boeing, it took some time to adjust to that.

What was your favorite moment while working for the campaign?
Meeting Barack for the first time was obviously very surreal. But a few weeks ago, Donna Brazile was coming to Chicago to speak at DePaul University. After Donna gave her speech, she asked if we wanted to go get drinks, so we get in her limo and go to a nice bar to meet up with Reverend Al Sharpton. He was buying us whiskey shots and, meanwhile, Donna was texting Condoleezza Rice. It was just crazy.

If you could have dinner with one celebrity, dead or alive, who would it be?
Warren Buffett. It pains me to say that because, working on the campaign, I could have had the opportunity to do that if I really pushed for it. He’s one of the best economic minds we’ve seen in a long time, and it would be interesting to see how he conducts himself on a day-to-day basis.

What is your favorite memory from the past year?
When we were in Grant Park and the West Coast closed, there was a huge countdown, and it flashed that Barack was our next president. The entire park erupted, and everyone was crying and hugging each other. I was standing next to Spike Lee at the time and we hugged. It still hasn’t sunk in; that moment felt so good.

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