Claude Allen - Career After College

Career After College

Allen grew up in a Democratic household, but he took a job after college as press secretary for Bill Cobey, a Republican Congressional candidate in North Carolina. He switched parties, saying later, in an interview, "I realized after the fact that I agree more with the Republican Party platform, that it talked about independence, that it talked about individual responsibility, individual rights, it talked about the ability to guarantee opportunities, not outcomes."

Allen subsequently began working for Republican Senator Jesse Helms, of North Carolina; he was Helms' campaign spokesman in 1984. From 1985 to 1987, Allen was a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.