Maine’s Portland Phoenix profiles Dan Cluchey ’08, one of the three major speechwriters for Joe Biden during his recent presidential campaign. “With the presidential campaign now giving way to a transition effort, Cluchey isn’t sure what’s next for his career,” writes reporter Elizabeth Clemente, “but he admits he has had quite the ride from his childhood in Cape Elizabeth to his life in Washington, D.C.”
The article traces Cluchey’s career from Amherst College, where he first became interested in writing speeches; through Harvard Law School; and into his speechwriting jobs for President Barack Obama’s administration and later for Biden. It touches upon the challenges of crafting speeches for a socially distanced, virtual environment in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cluchey praises the diversity of people who advised him in writing about such issues as Black Lives Matter and transgender rights: “We were just fortunate to have a campaign that looked like America in all respects and to have their input not as some sort of afterthought but as a critical part of the process.”
The article also includes mentions and photos of Cluchey’s wife, lawyer Miriam Becker-Cohen ’11.