2016 Liberal ears perk up as Clinton aide floats debt-free college Robby Mook’s declaration sends a message to progressive activists.

When Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager said the words “debt-free college” in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday morning, liberal ears perked up.

Robby Mook’s declaration — “what voters are looking for in this election is someone who’s going to be a champion for everyday people, for young people that’s debt-free college, that’s finding that job after you graduate” — stopped short of an endorsement of the policy goal embraced by liberals and by Clinton’s likely primary rival Martin O’Malley, but it sent a message to progressive activists that the Clinton camp is paying close attention to their concerns.


Although Clinton has spoken in general terms about making college more affordable, and has embraced President Barack Obama’s proposal to make community college free, she has yet to publicly support a plan to let students graduate from college without debt. It is one of a handful of areas on which progressive groups and activists are pressuring Clinton, who has yet to release her full policy agenda, from the left.

Clinton’s campaign said she would be more specific about her policy plans in the future, but it didn’t say that Mook’s comment constituted a full embrace of debt-free higher education.

“Hillary Clinton has fought to make college affordable and accessible throughout her career — from expanding student loans, to lowering college costs,” said campaign spokesman Jesse Ferguson. “As she has traveled to Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, she has heard over and over how Americans’ student debt burden continues to hurt our economic growth, small business creation, and innovation. As the campaign moves forward, she will continue to lay out detailed plans to tackle big issues, this one included.”

Still, Clinton did talk in detail about student debt when she was on her campaign swing through New Hampshire in April, and New Hampshire State Councilor Colin Van Ostern said he discussed the topic with Mook when the campaign manager and Marlon Marshall, another top Clinton aide, were in the state before Clinton’s campaign launch.

“I asked him about it, and he said student debt was something the campaign and Secretary Clinton were looking at ways to tackle,” said Van Ostern, describing a conversation over pizza at the house of Clinton’s top staffer in the state, Mike Vlacich. He said the conversation was spurred by an op-ed he had written in the New Hampshire Union Leader endorsing Clinton and calling for debt-free higher education.

“It sounded like it was organically already on their radar,” Van Ostern added. “He said he’s been hearing that, and finding ways to advance towards that goal [of debt-free college] is definitely a focus for the campaign.”

Despite the campaign’s suggestion that Mook’s comment was not an endorsement of any particular goal or policy position, some liberal activists cheered the interview.

“It is nothing short of monumental that the Clinton campaign has embraced the idea of debt-free college — a top priority for young people, working parents and the progressive movement,” said Adam Green of the Progressive Chance Campaign Committee.

The policy has been a favorite of liberals including groups like Green’s, and a range of Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate — including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chuck Schumer of New York — recently cosponsored resolutions calling for debt-free college.

If she does eventually come out fully in favor of a debt-free college plan, Clinton would join O’Malley, who will likely launch his campaign challenging Clinton later this month. In April, the former Maryland governor penned a Washington Post op-ed declaring, “our ultimate goal must be for every student — most especially low-income and middle-class students — to be able to go to college debt-free.”

Mook’s interview came just hours after Clinton hit some key notes for liberal immigration activists in a campaign stop in Nevada, and on the same day she was raising money in San Francisco, including a stop at the home of environmental activist and megadonor Tom Steyer.