My old buddy, the late and talented motorsports writer and publicist, Joe Whitlock was once enlisted to manage the successful U.S. Senate campaign for South Carolinian Fritz Hollings, Democrat - SC. Looks like former Joe Gibbs pit crew intern, Cameron French has completely abandonned NASCAR for the bright lights of politics. Maybe all those years Gibbs spent in DC plotting the strategy that got the Redskins past the Cowboys has rubbed off on ole Cameron.
NASCAR fan joins race to '12 'finish'
By Tim Funk - tfunk@charlotteobserver.com
Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011
Ask Cameron French how he got to Charlotte, and he'll tell you about his career goal at age 12.
He had decided he wanted to go into motorsports engineering. And barely out of grade school, he'd written - on a Post-it note - three schools where he could pursue his dream of driving NASCAR: UNC Charlotte, Clemson and Ohio State.
The Philadelphia native eventually opted for UNC Charlotte and says he fell in love with its diversity.
"At my high school, there were 40 to 60 countries represented, like a mini-United Nations," he says. "UNC Charlotte ... felt like it was a bigger version of where I had just come from. It felt like home."
In 2004-05, he got an internship working in NASCAR on the pit crew for Joe Gibbs.
But, in the end, it wasn't NASCAR that won French's heart. It was politics.
At UNCC, he majored in political science and was president of the College Democrats.
Instead of driving fast, he had loftier goals.
"I have always grown up in a family or been in an environment where I looked at the collective good," he says. "You could be successful. But are you also looking out for the next generation? ...I've always found politics (to be) an opportunity to bridge the gap between the future and the past."
Today, at 27, French is press secretary for the Obama organization in North Carolina.
In 2008, he worked in the state for the Democratic National Committee. But he's spent most of his post-college years working on Capitol Hill for U.S. Reps. John Hall, D-N.Y., and Brad Sherman, D-Calif.
But, as the 2012 campaign season began, French decided he wanted to help President Barack Obama get re-elected.
Lindsay Siler, the N.C. Obama director, liked his N.C. connections.
"I decided I needed to get out of D.C.," says French, "and go fight for what I feel like we started in '08 and make sure we finish it the right way in 2012."
Read more: http://www.thatsracin.com/2011/12/11/80075/nascar-fan-joins-race-to-12-finish.html#storylink=misearch#ixzz1gHSHJAvX
Former Gibbs Pit Crew Intern Cameron French - Below Left
--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM