Vincent Evans, the manager director of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), says he has “one of the greatest jobs in America.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) recruited Evans for the position practically three years in the past — poaching him from Vice President Harris’s workplace, the place he served as deputy director of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs. Earlier than that, he served as Southern political director for President Biden’s 2020 marketing campaign.
“I always wanted to be in public service,” Evans stated. “I used to participate as a Senate page back home in the Florida Capitol every year in high school, and so when it came time for me to go off to college, I knew that I wanted to be in Florida’s capital city in Tallahassee.”
Evans grew up exterior of Jacksonville, Fla., together with his father and appears again on his childhood with blended feelings. They lived collectively in a one-bedroom condo, and his father labored two — typically three — jobs to make ends meet. When his father remarried, Evans’s stepmother struggled with habit.
“I often think about that time with tears in my eyes,” Evans advised The Hill.
However Evans’s household by no means stopped encouraging him to succeed in for his goals.
“My family encouraged me that there was something good and great in me that would manifest,” Evans stated. “I never doubted the fact that I would have a journey that would reflect my highest ideals and dreams and hopes … but it was not always clear how the path would come together.”
Evans attended Florida A&M, one of many nation’s largest traditionally Black universities, the place he met Al Lawson Jr., a state senator on the time.
Lawson turned a mentor to Evans, and as Evans’s pals headed to the nation’s capital, he stayed behind till the Democrat was elected to Congress.
“I always said I wanted to come to Washington with someone that I helped get there, and that’s exactly what happened,” Evans stated.
Because the CBC’s govt director, Evans enjoys digging deep into coverage — and dealing throughout the political aisles.
“We have a saying at the CBC: no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests,” Evans stated. ”And day-after-day I get to listen to about what these everlasting pursuits are and the way we will advance them on behalf of Black Individuals.”
