Reggie Love, former special assistant and personal aide for President Barack Obama and Trinity '05, visited campus Thursday to speak with students a representative of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The Chronicle talked to Love—a former Duke men’s basketball player—about his thoughts on the 2016 presidential election, the importance of voting and the upcoming Duke basketball season.
The Chronicle: Why are you here registering voters? And does your experience as President Obama’s personal aide have anything to do with you helping the Clinton campaign?
Reggie Love: Obviously, I worked for President Obama in an official capacity for three years as president, two years on the presidential campaign, one year in his senate office. I’m on the board of the 501(c)(4), “Organizing for America.” And when you’re in college and you’re so focused on your grades and your girlfriend or your boyfriend or girlfriends or whatever, it's sometimes hard to stop and say and think about how much of an impact the political process has on you today, will have on you in the future, and so I thought it would be great to come down here. It’s really important. Every decision that’s made at the federal level ultimately has a significant impact on the amount of access to education, health, how much debt we have individually, how much debt we have as a country, which are all things we’ll be responsible for in the future. So we might as well start today.
TC: What do you think about the 2016 election?
RG: It’s so funny because I was saying at the campaign office today, I remember when 2008 rolled around and everyone was like, ‘this is the campaign of technology.’ It was like Facebook. There was no Instagram, no Twitter, no Facebook Live—no any of this stuff. But it was sort of the beginning of people being smarter about getting people engaged and tracking and making sure that folks are going out to the polls. It’s been interesting in itself to see how technology has played a part in this particular campaign.
In terms of the candidates, Hillary’s run a very presidential campaign. Her team has been great. I think she has addressed a lot of really important issues that are important to me—anything from social justice to student loans. And really the economy. I think we’re kind of just coming out of what started in 2008 as the Great Recession. President Obama has done a great job of turning us in the right direction and bringing back the housing market. But there’s still been a piece, which has been really around wages. And Hillary Clinton will be a great person to continue President Obama’s legacy and hard work in turning around this economy. And I think that last portion is figuring out how people can work a nine-to-five job, work hard every day, have enough money to retire, have enough money to take a vacation, to send their kids to school, pay for healthcare and retire with dignity. She is the perfect person to do it. That’s the experience she’s had.
TC: What do you think about the HB2 law and recent efforts to restrict voting?
RL: I hope the folks reading the paper, reading the Chronicle realize that the reason voter ID policy is made for students. It is one of the most egregious things. It’s like we don’t want people who are only here for just three years or two years or one year to participate in our political process. The idea that just because you decide to go off to Duke or N.C. State or N.C. Central and you’re from Tennessee or Virginia and you shouldn’t have a voice is ridiculous. And so that is a huge a reason why I’m here. And when you talk about early voting, when you talk about participating in the political process, it’s not just participating because it's president election. Its also about participating at the state level, at your county, at your city level.
You look at HB2, that’s not a product of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. That’s a product of North Carolina state legislature—Governor McCrory. So those issues are disheartening to me. Part of the reason that makes North Carolina a great place and great place to live is because we’re a state that’s inclusionary. When you look at the universities, when you look at Asheville, when you look at Charlotte, it’s the diversity that makes this state a great place. The idea that we somehow want to put to up barriers or put of walls to make it harder or make it less appealing to attract talent, to attract companies, to attract jobs, I think it’s a little archaic.
TC: Do you miss being President Obama’s personal aide?
RL: So being a partner at Transatlantic [a financial holding company] has been a great experience. And I’ve learned a lot. And we’ve grown businesses, and we’ve exited them successfully. But nothing really compares to the idea of being in a job, working in a position for a person who one, is just unbelievably thoughtful and cares immensely about the American people and has just the utmost respect for the office of the presidency. Everyday you’re there you have a chance to make an impact on someone’s life. You can see the impact you make on someone’s life everyday. And I miss that. That’s one of the things that keeps me involved in the political process because I know how much impact you’re going to have if you go out and you make your voice heard, if you go out and participate in the process. People can really make a difference and can really build communities and change how we look at the status of people. The president overturned “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” he struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. The first bill he passed was the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which basically said that men and women have to be paid the same amount for performing the same jobs. Passing the Affordable Care Act so that if they get sick, they don’t have to mortgage their futures away because they’ve got some enormous health bill. Those are real tangible things that I was proud to be a part of. And hopefully at a point in time in the future, I’ll be able to do more impactful things along those lines.
TC: Do you see yourself going back into the political sphere?
RL: Being apart of the political process. Whether you go and vote on early-voting day or just on election day, whether or not you volunteer at your local political party or campaign, whether or not you’re talking to your friends and families about things that are important to you around the kitchen table, I always want to be a part of the process. It’s a huge thing. Whether or not I will personally run for anything, I don’t have anything in mind, but anything is possible.
TC: What do you think about the Duke basketball team this year?
RL: There’s a lot of pressure on those guys. They finally have some seasoned veterans. They’ve got a great recruiting class. I don’t know who’s going to be the best freshman out of that group. It could be [Jayson] Tatum, [Harry] Giles, who knows. But Grayson [Allen] is going to be a good leader. Grayson plays the game the right way. He plays hard and intelligently. Having a guy like that on and around the ball leading the team will produce good results. So the pressure is on for those guys. They’ve got all of the right pieces. If they’re not playing in the Final Four, they’re going to be a lot disappointed people.
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