Working for a local politician this summer was not on my planned bucket list. For many, the summer break is a time to unwind. I decided to use my free time as an opportunity for unique volunteer opportunities.
Politics has always interested me. I decided that this is how I would actively make the change I’d see in my lifetime. So within a couple of weeks, I applied, interviewed, and began volunteering with a local politician’s campaign team.
Before this experience, I had only written voter postcards to states during election season. Being a part of this campaign acted as a lens into the inner workings of politics on a local scale.
As an intern, I completed canvassing and phone banking. Canvassing consisted of going door to door with pamphlets on our candidate and conversing about their policies with Huntington residents. Doing this in the heat, walking up and down long driveways, and getting turned away, was all part of the lengthy process.
On the other hand, phone banking was dialing up number after number with the same idea in mind. This was able to be done remotely and even attracted volunteers outside of our campaign team. For both strategies, the intern or volunteer would note how someone felt about our candidate and if they had their own concerns our local government could impact.
One of my shifts, another intern and I were assigned an area down the street from my house. Using the app Minivan, we worked off our phones to collect our data. I proceeded with my normal routine of splitting the houses on the list, around seventy in total. Nearing the end, we decided to do a house together. We expected the usual short conversation, a minute-long spiel of us endorsing our candidate and a quick response.
However, this particular house’s residents reciprocated our felt importance of local politics. We talked to a couple who recently bought a house here. They expressed their own experience relating to the housing crisis on Long Island. Then, they commended us for the work we do, especially considering how young we both were.
I felt rewarded through this conversation, knowing the work I had done was impactful. The hours spent talking face-to-face with voters was worth it because of rare instances like this one.
Despite myself and a couple of other interns not being of voting age, we did our part in spreading our message. Whether it was knocking door after door, or dialing number after number, we reached thousands of citizens this summer… all with the goal of getting people to vote on November seventh.
Florence Karp • Sep 22, 2023 at 7:34 am
I am so glad that you found this experience so rewarding. We need young people to get involved. We need to replace the older politicians with the same ideas with younger ones with fresh insights and thoughts. Keep up the good work. This was a summer vacation well spent.