On the front lines of Trump policy shifts, Marcus Harris sees real-world fallout
New job, new challenges for Sandusky's former DEI officer
Some might suggest it hasn’t been a good year for Marcus Harris. He went from a stinging election loss in the county commissioner race in November to a new job in Cleveland this past April, chockfull with new challenges nobody could have expected.
He realized pretty quickly he needed to move on from the election loss and in April accepted the position as director of programs and services for Greater Cleveland Works, oversees workforce development programs that rely on federal funding.
In his new role, Harris doesn’t just read about federal policy debates in the news. He feels them at work. He’s face-to-face with the consequences of policy shifts under President Donald Trump’s administration.
“When he does these capricious things — like eliminating the veterans union contract for the VA hospital — we deal with those workers,” Harris said. “If they are laid off and let go, that comes into our system. It has responses.”
One of the most pressing concerns, Harris said, is the impact of expanded Medicaid work requirements.
“This Medicaid work expansion will put anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 people into the workforce system,” he warned. “We don’t have the capacity for that … and we don’t get extra money for it.”
In Cleveland, with its large federal presence, the effects are magnified. Harris cited NASA contractors, veterans hospital employees and federal program workers who could be displaced.
“As the implementers of the frontline workforce development system at the federal and state level, we are on the front lines of when they do things — we feel it,” he said.
Harris called some recent moves “not humane, not American.” He pointed to the sudden elimination of Job Corps funding, which threatened 92 youth and more than 100 employees before a court stepped in.
“What is happening is not nice. It’s not humane. And come 2026, I believe that we will see a correction from this in the country.”
For Harris, politics is secondary to people.
“These things that are happening on that macro level — people may not think that it’s affecting real people, but it is. And to be on the front line of that … it’s not abstract. It’s immediate.”
Harris is a native of Sandusky and a 1997 graduate of Sandusky High School. He attended the University of Michigan School of Engineering and earned his bachelor’s degree at Bowling Green State University in 2009.
He previously worked as a store manager for 10 years with Starbucks, where he honed his leadership, talent development and community engagement skills in locations all across the Northeast Ohio market.
He also previously worked with youth workforce development nonprofit Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.) in Cleveland. He joined the city staff as an administrator in 2021 as diversity and economic opportunity manager.
