Path to Power
Sevugan was born in Madras, India in 1974. Two years later, his parents moved to Glendale Heights, Ill., a western suburb of Chicago, where his father worked in marketing and his mother was a small-business owner. He went to the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill., and studied political science. But when he graduated, Sevugan didn’t immediately enter politics. Instead, he worked as a middle-school teacher in New York.
Sevugan said he loved teaching middle school because the students were old enough to have developed personalities but young enough to be gullible and fun to joke around with. He once dyed his hair blond in front of the entire school after losing a bet with his students. “It was very rewarding,” Sevugan said. But after two years, he became frustrated with the bureaucracy outside of the classroom. “I thought a greater way to make a difference would be through a policy role,” Sevugan said.
He changed course and attended Northwestern University Law School. After graduation, he worked for a few years for the law firm of Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg in Chicago. In 2004, Sevugan was recruited to work on his first political campaign: Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes’ unsuccessful run against Obama in the 2004 Democratic primary during for Senate.
From there, Sevugan hit the road, heading from campaign to campaign. He was recruited to work as research and policy director for Kentucky Governor Daniel Mongiardo’s (D) 2004 run against Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.). Sevugan said that was a fun, intense campaign because they were on a shoestring budget in the Republican state. The Democratic challenger had no direct mail and aired just two television ads. The small staff allowed Sevugan to work on all facets of the campaign. Mongiardo lost, but closed the gap in the final few months of the campaign.
Sevugan had better luck when he joined Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) successful 2005 gubernatorial campaign as policy director. It was the opposite of Mongiardo’s campaign: high-profile, nationally-watched and well-funded. After Kaine’s victory, Sevugan went north to Maryland where he served as communications director for then-Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley (D) in his successful run for Maryland governor, scoring another high-profile race.
Dodd and Obama Presidential Campaigns
From there, Sevugan joined the presidential campaign of Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), another relatively underfunded enterprise in which the senator was a distinct underdog. But Dodd got some attention for moving to Iowa, home of the first-in-the-nation caucuses, and ran a cyber-savvy effort that utilized Twitter, YouTube and blogs. But Dodd’s campaign never gained traction and the lawmaker pulled out of the race shortly after losing the Iowa caucuses.
When Dodd dropped out, Sevugan, who is a big Cubs fan and cites Bill Simmons as his favorite writer, returned to Chicago, where he joined Obama’s presidential campaign. Initially, he received the “Hillary Clinton Account,” and was in charge of rapid response against the former first lady. After the primary, he took aim at GOP nominee and vice presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Alaska Gov.Sarah Palin (R).
After Obama won, Sevugan continued to press the Democratic political agenda as national press secretary for the DNC. “You’re still trying to accomplish the same thing, which is get your message out and explain to people why it’s better to listen to us,” Sevugan said. “The way I always ran my policy shops was I felt policy was very much a tool for communicating your message.”
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