Democrat Doug Jones, who will be sworn in as a senator representing Alabama this week, announced on Tuesday that his chief of staff will be Dana Gresham, a former assistant secretary for government affairs at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
I would like to welcome Alabama native & former Asst. Secretary for Governmental Affairs at @USDOT Dana Gresham, who will be joining our team as Chief of Staff. pic.twitter.com/Fo8lNQGupP
— Doug Jones (@GDouglasJones) January 2, 2018
Before joining the Obama administration, Gresham worked for several members of Congress on Capitol Hill. With Gresham’s hiring, Jones will be the only Democratic senator with a black chief of staff. Two Republican senators have black chiefs of staff.
Gresham’s hiring comes after advocacy groups urged Jones to hire people of color to lead his Senate staff given that minority voters helped propel Jones to a stunning victory in deep-red Alabama. In a December letter, seventeen groups, including, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the NAACP and the National Urban League, wrote to Jones and asked him to hire at least one person of color to work in one of the top three staff positions in his Senate office.
This post has been updated.
