Gabe Amo

Gabe Amo grew up in Pawtucket in a blended family with five brothers and two sisters.¹ His mother, a nurse from Liberia, and father, a liquor store owner from Ghana, came to Rhode Island separately.¹ He has traced his early interest in government to a fifth grade project about Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.¹

He earned a political science degree at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, then studied comparative social policy at Oxford as a Marshall Scholar.¹ His early political work included organizing for Sheldon Whitehouse and Barack Obama before joining the Obama White House.¹

Amo later directed public engagement and community affairs for Governor Gina Raimondo, working with Rhode Island municipalities, businesses, unions and faith communities.² In the Biden White House, he was deputy director of intergovernmental affairs and a principal liaison to mayors and local officials.² His 2023 special election victory made him Rhode Island's first Black member of Congress.¹

His current work emphasizes maritime manufacturing, research and jobs in Rhode Island's ocean economy.³ He has also pressed the administration to release international health funding and protect PEPFAR.⁴ Republican Kellie Keenan and independent Pedro Soares de Souza are challenging him in November.⁵