Obama Appoints NGLTF's Dave Noble as Director of LGBT Vote

The Barack Obama campaign announced Wednesday that David Noble, former executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats and current director of public policy and government affairs at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, has been appointed as director of the LGBT vote for the campaign. Noble will be stepping down from his position at NGLTF and officially starting with the campaign on June 21.

As the campaign switches gears to the general election, deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand said, “We have moved aggressively to set up our national LGBT vote operation and to staff it with the best people we can possibly get.” Hildebrand, who is gay, called Noble a “well-seasoned” political operative.

“He is experienced at many levels, he is a passionate advocate for the LGBT community across the country, and he will be an important voice for Barack Obama in this critical election,” Hildebrand said during a 20-minute conference call with reporters. “We know there is a tremendous difference between the positions held by John McCain as the Republican nominee and Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee, and Dave will be the voice and the organizer behind making sure that voters all across the country know the difference between the records and the positions of these two candidates for the presidency.”

Acknowledging that he had a lot of work do with just under five months between now and the general election, Noble said he was “thrilled” to join the Obama team and had “really been proud to watch [Obama] speak about LGBT issues on the stump, not just to LGBT audiences but to everyone as he’s been campaigning.”

Noble, who has a history of coalition building among gay activists, said the fact that the campaign reached out to him was just one sign of how serious they are about making sure that LGBT people not only have the information they need to make an informed decision come November but also have ways to get involved. “No matter how they are organized now at their grassroots level, they’re going to have access to the campaign,” said Noble.

Asked whether Noble would be focusing his LGBT outreach efforts more on red states or blue states, Hildebrand noted that just eight weeks ago the campaign had launched a 50-state voter registration drive.

“Dave will be helping design those programs to be specifically reaching out to gay voters and asking them to increase their participation in politics, whether that means getting them registered to vote or ensuring that they do vote in November, whether they’re voting for Barack Obama -- which would obviously be our hope -- or John McCain or one of the other third-party candidates,” said Hildebrand. “The bottom line is, within Barack’s heart he believes that our democracy will be stronger if more people participate in politics and voting.” (Kerry Eleveld, The Advocate)