Head of policy for Mayor Ras Baraka, veteran operative Tai Cooper will leave Newark City Hall for the Murphy Administration.

Next month, Cooper will be deputy chief policy advisor in the Murphy Administration.

She has a deep reservoir of experience in the game, having begun her political career in 2005 in the office of the late U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). Cooper went on to serve as chief of staff to Orange Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr, before serving as Baraka’s communications director in a hard 2014 mayoral election. She subsequently became the mayor’s policy chief.

Last year, she fought Shanique Speight for an assembly seat in LD29 and lost.

 “Tai Cooper has been an extraordinary asset to Newark,” said the mayor. “He has been at the center of many of our most important initiatives from the Newark2020 jobs program to My Brother’s Keeper to the Street Teams and so much more. Newark has benefitted from her wise policy advice, boundless rolodex and ability to get things done. I know that in her new leadership role with the Governor she will continue to deliver for Newark.” 

 Cooper likewise felt gratified for her work in her hometown.

“It has been an honor and pleasure to work for Mayor Baraka and I look forward to carrying his progressive agenda with me to Trenton,” she said. “I’m truly grateful to all of the women leaders who helped to shape and grow me! I’m looking forward to the journey ahead working for Governor Phil Murphy.”