Gabriel Felix Kofi Amo (born 1987/1988) is an American politician who is the Democratic nominee in the 2023 Rhode Island's 1st congressional district special election.
Before running for Congress, Amo worked in the Biden administration as the deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. He has also worked in the Obama administration, on several Democratic political campaigns, and in Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo's administration.
Early life and education
Amo was born and raised in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. His father and mother immigrated to Rhode Island from Ghana and Liberia, respectively. His mother is a nurse and his father owns a liquor store. He graduated from the Moses Brown college preparatory school in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was part of the student senate and received the Rhode Island Secretary of State's Civic Leadership Award. He also was selected to participate in the United States Senate Youth Program in Washington, D.C.
Amo earned a Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where he studied political science and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. He was also a member of the student government association. He received a Truman Scholarship, Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship, and a Marshall Scholarship to study comparative social policy at Oxford.
Political career
In college, Amo volunteered on Sheldon Whitehouse's 2006 U.S. Senate campaign and then on Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. He worked in the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs in the Obama administration, serving as a liaison to governors and other state officials. He was also a national political coordinator for Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.
Amo served as Governor Gina Raimondo's principal advisor on outreach to Rhode Island's local government, business, and faith communities, and worked as a senior advisor on her 2018 re-election campaign. He returned to national politics as a strategist and program advisor on Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign and later served on his transition team. He then served as the special assistant and deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, working as the principal liaison to mayors and local elected officials.
2023 congressional campaign
Amo left his White House job to run in the 2023 special election for Rhode Island's 1st congressional district, after incumbent representative David Ciciline announced his resignation from Congress to run the non-profit Rhode Island Foundation. His campaign focused on protecting Social Security, Medicare, and abortion rights, while tackling gun violence and climate change. He received endorsements from the Congressional Black Caucus, former Rhode Island representative Patrick J. Kennedy, and former White House chief of staff Ron Klain. He was also supported by outside spending from Democrats Serve PAC and Collective PAC.
Amo was criticized for accepting over $20,000 from federal lobbyists representing major corporations, including Fox Corporation, Eli Lilly and Company, Philip Morris USA, Marathon Petroleum, and others. His receipts also included more than $8,000 from lobbyists for Wall Street firms and banks such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard, and Bitcoin. His primary campaign received more than $600,000 in donations in total. In late August, a poll conducted for his campaign showed him in second place.
In September 2023, Amo won the Democratic primary in an upset to become the party's nominee for Rhode Island's 1st congressional district. The general election will be held on November 7. If elected, he will be Rhode Island's first person of color in Congress.
Personal life
In 2017, Amo received Higher Ground International's "Clan Chief Award." In 2019, he received the distinguished Young Alumnus/a Award from Moses Brown School. In 2022, he was the Ghana Diaspora Public Affairs Collective's distinguished honoree at the Golden Gala and Awards Symposium, honoring senior Ghanaian-American government officials.