Coby Clement

**Coby Clement** (born June 26, 1962) is an American political strategist currently serving as the White House Press Secretary and Director of Communications under President Calvin Reed.

## Early life

Coby was born the 26th of June 1962 in Schenectady, New York. One among four sons and two daughters of 1st generation Jewish immigrants, Coby would struggle to outshine his other siblings in a family where attention had to be fought for. His oldest brother David studied medicine and became a doctor, the second oldest Jacob, a banker and the youngest brother of his, Adam became a notable lawyer. His older sister Leah would become a pianist in a prominent orchestra and the younger a children's book author with good sales. Coby himself had little idea of what he would become in childhood nor when approaching adulthood. He excelled in school, but so did all of his other siblings. The first political interest Coby would ever have would be during the watergate scandal which ousted Nixon out of the Oval office, something his progressive parents had to explain to him with complete lack of nuance. In his teenage years, he'd read political literature and start reading the newspapers to keep up with the events around the country and the world.

A determined Republican by age 18, he volunteered for Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign in New York and was with excellent work sent to the campaign headquarters to celebrate the expected victory on the night of November 4th, 1980. Reagan's victory speech was immensely inspiring to Coby and seeing it in real life gave a huge impression on him. Following the election however, Coby would go on to college at New York university and major in Business Marketing after a taken interest in the latter.

## Career

Coby worked in the ad-business at several firms between 85'-92'. Through some old contacts from the Reagan campaign in 1980, he managed to get an important communication role for the Bush campaign focused on voter outreach and TV advertisement in New England in New York. As exciting as he found the work and as productive he was, the election was lost. He will however until this day take credit for the tight race over New Hampshire in the Presidential election and more than likely to brag about his "many" encounters with the President. Noticed for his work, Coby was hired by the RNC to head a team of strategists and pollsters for the 94' midterms, and oversaw many congressional races personally. Having served his purpose in the Republican effort of grabbing more than 50 seats for the house however, Coby retired from his works with the Republican Party and started his own advertising firm the same year. His firm was relatively successful, having a New York office and a few larger clients. He sold his share in the firm after 14 years however, and had a brief period of retirement before being approached by the charity organization American Dream. He worked as media director for a period of time there, essentially building up the community outreach methods the organization would come to use.

## Calvin Reed's Director of Communications

After a brief period of return to the private sector as a contractor, Philantropist Calvin Reed hired Coby as Director of Communications for his campaign just before the primaries. With good contacts at TV-channels and proven strategies in voter outreach and social media, his work was a weighty factor in the machinery to get Reed's message through. He was officially appointed as the White House Director of Communications and White House Press Secretary on January 20, 2017.

## Personal life

Married to Gloria Clement since 1989, with whom he has two adult children.

## Misc.

Main Strengths:
-Excellent understanding of voter outreach and importance of modern media
-Good ties with interest groups and business
-Experience in shaping policy and more so with 'selling it'
Main Weaknesses:
-Rather rigid, sometimes unaware when acting out of line
-Afraid of conflicts with colleagues and likes to take difficult decisions on his own
-Few ties in DC
-Recovered alcoholic

Other Info: Career
-Volunteer in Reagan's Presidential campaign, 1980
-Several associate jobs at ad-firms, 1985-92
-Republican campaign communications director for New England and New York, 1992
-Media strategist for the RNC, 1993-94
-Managing Partner of Clement & Partners (original name), 1995-2009
-Communications Director at American Dream, 2011-12
-Private contractor, 2014-15
-Director of Communications on Calvin Reed's campaign, 2016

**Original Application**