Political Campaign Internship With Rita Joseph’s Campaign for NYC Council

By Paul Rapuzzi, Justice and Legal Thought College Park Scholar

As a field intern, myself and many others are the main grassroots machine of Rita’s campaign.

During the Spring 2021 Semester, I interned with Rita Joseph, a public educator and community activist running to replace an entrenched incumbent in one of New York City’s most competitive city council races.

At the core of Rita’s campaign is change. The current representative for the District 40, Maxi Eugene, has been in office since 2007 and his promises for change always seem to end right after election season. Rita’s campaign is all about bringing change to District 40 by tackling it’s biggest issues such as affordable housing, education, crime, and recovery from the pandemic.

With District 40 being an open seat, it’s been one of the most competitive races in the cycle with over 12 candidates competing to replace Mathieu Eugene, even down to his own brother. In a race as competitive as this one, it’s important to make your candidate stand out in anyway that you can, which is where my position comes in.

As a field intern, myself and many others are the main grassroots machine of Rita’s campaign. I engage in voter outreach, primarily through phone banking since the internship is in a virtual setting and spreading information about Rita while trying to bring her in a voter base. Based on the data I record; the campaign shifts its focus and is able to get a general estimate of how many voters they can expect in the very important primary this June. Thanks to the hard work put in during our daily phone banking sessions Rita’s campaign has vastly outpaced her competitors, making over a thousand calls every day where most campaigns make that many in a week. As my supervisor often reminds us, phone banking is the lifeblood of Rita’s campaign, and with luck, it’ll mean victory in June and real change for a neighborhood that desperately needs it.