N.C. campaign director defied 'pretty girl' prejudice

Lindsay Siler often recalls the moment she knew she had to get more involved in politics.

It was 2005, and Siler, then director of public policy for Planned Parenthood Health Systems, was in South Carolina, trying to amend a legislative measure she considered bad for women.

"I went and saw a state senator, who said to me: 'You're a pretty girl. When are you going to realize that God's purpose for you is to procreate your race?' "

That was when Siler understood that she needed to do more than write good legislation.

"It doesn't stand a chance of becoming law," she realized, "unless we have the right individuals in office."

By 2007, she was working for the Hillary Clinton for President campaign in Iowa.

Today, Siler, 34, is directing President Barack Obama's organization in North Carolina - a pivotal swing state. Born in St. Louis, her father's retail job kept the family moving: She went to junior high in Chicago, high school in Boston and the University of Southern California. She's been in Raleigh for six years - "almost the longest I've lived anywhere."

All the moving affected her perspective. "Change is not something that is scary," she says. "There was a sense that you could roll up your sleeves, step up to the plate and make good things happen."

Siler studied psychology in college but soon found herself working for causes. At Planned Parenthood, it was women's rights and reproductive health. "Either I was born a feminist and was raised an activist," she says, "or I was born an activist and raised a feminist."

She spends most of her time trying to build a grass-roots effort that will spell victory for Obama next year. In 2007, while working for Clinton, she was on the outside looking in on the Obama campaign, which won in Iowa and eventually the nation. "They were truly building a collective voice, the grass-roots organization we've all dreamt about," she says.

So when she got the call inviting her to build his 2012 organization in North Carolina, Siler says, "there was no way I was going to pass that up."