Lori Lodes is a left-of-center communications operative who has worked for a number of prominent left-leaning advocacy groups, political campaigns, and corporations. She started her communications career at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as a consultant, and later as a spokeswoman for the labor union. In her work at the Center of American Progress, Lodes helped organize amicus briefs in support of Obamacare as it made its way to the Supreme Court.

Lodes took a position with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS) during the later Obama administration, and later joined the 2016 Presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. After President Barack Obama left office in 2017, Lodes and fellow Obama administration alumnus Joshua Peck created the Get America Covered group to encourage Americans to sign up for Obamacare-compliant health plans. ¹

As of November 2019, Lodes works as a spokeswoman for Apple, Inc.

Service Employees International Union:

In 2009, Lori Lodes, was a spokesperson for the Service Employees International Union and paid $102,128 in gross salary. ² She announced that SEIU was pulling support of a Senate healthcare reform bill that was a precursor to Obamacare passed a year later. The SEIU opposition to the bill was based on then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid’s decision to remove a government-run public option for Medicare to allow people between the ages of 55 to 64 to purchase into the program. The union also voiced concerns, through Lodes, that the proposed health care legislation would place a “Cadillac” tax on union-negotiated healthcare plans. ³

Center for American Progress

In 2010, Lodes left the SEIU and joined the Democratic Party establishment-aligned think tank Center for American Progress (CAP). Lodes was vice president of communications at CAP until 2014, when she took a job in the Obama administration at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. ⁴

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services:

In 2015, while working for the Obama administration in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Lodes defended the Obama administration’s support of Planned Parenthood. After undercover videos allegedly showed Planned Parenthood profiting from the remains of aborted fetuses, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) directed the Arkansas Department of Human Services to terminate Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood. Lodes defended the Obama administration’s support of Planned Parenthood in her role at CMS by stating that “restricting which provider a woman could choose to receive care from, women could lose access to critical preventative care, such as cancer screenings.” ⁵

Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign:

In 2016, Lodes joined former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as the chief of staff for her communication team. ⁶ After Clinton’s loss in the 2016 presidential election, Lori Lodes began consulting for Protect Our Care, a “coalition fighting Trump and congressional Republicans over the future” of Obamacare. ⁷

Get America Covered

Lodes co-founded the Get Covered America campaign to help boost enrollment in Obamacare-compliant health plans in 2017. She worked with fellow Obama administration alumnus Joshua Peck with support from controversial former Obama White House advisor Van Jones, Obama administration CMMS official Andy Slavitt, former health insurance CEO Maria Molina, and activist actors Bradley Whitford and Alyssa Milano. ⁸

Opposition to Brett Kavanaugh Nomination

In 2018, Lodes worked as an advisor for Demand Justice and campaigned against the nomination of then Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. “We are fighting Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination because he represents the greatest threat to the right to legal abortion since Roe was decided.” Demand Justice, during Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings, gathered in the Hart Senate Office Building protesting by dressing in costumes of characters from The Handmaid’s Tale. ⁹

Corporate Work

According to her LinkedIn page, in 2018 Lori Lodes took a position as director of corporate communications for Apple. ¹⁰

1. Roubein, Rachel. “Ex-CMS Staffer Buoys ObamaCare.” TheHill, December 12, 2017. https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/lobbyist-profiles/364357-ex-cms-staffer-buoys-obamacare.
2. Service Employees International Union, Annual Report of a Labor Organization (Form LM-2), 2009, Schedule 12
3. Kliff, Sarah. “Budget Request Denied, Sebelius Turns to Health Executives to Finance Obamacare.” The Washington Post. WP Company, April 28, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/05/10/budget-request-denied-sebelius-turns-to-health-executives-to-finance-obamacare/.
4. “Lori Lodes.” Good Pitch. Accessed November 11, 2019. https://goodpitch.org/users/lori-lodes.
5. Castillo, Stephanie. “Arkansas Governor Is Done Funding Planned Parenthood.” Medical Daily, August 15, 2015. https://www.medicaldaily.com/planned-parenthood-loses-funding-arkansas-after-recent-revelations-aborted-fetal-347998.
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7. “Clinton’s Ex-Staffers Are Fighting Back and Are Part of the Resistance.” Daily Kos. Accessed November 11, 2019. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1635520.
8. Sarlin, Benjy. “These People Won’t Let Obamacare Die.” NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal News Group, October 4, 2017. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/these-people-won-t-let-obamacare-die-n807691.
9. Haslett, Cheyenne. “The Handmaids Tale Protesters Target Kavanaugh.” ABC News. ABC News Network, September 4, 2018. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/handmaids-tale-protesters-target-kavanaugh/story?id=57592706.
10. “Lori Lodes.” LinkedIn. Accessed November 13, 2019. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-lodes-b818083/.