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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.
Hi Paul,
The topic of campaigning really caught my attention as I have always been interested in the steps it takes to run a proper campaign. I really like the way you described your experience and I like how your contributions allowed the campaign to skyrocket. I am interested in how the info you learned here can be applicable to a future career?
Hi, Paul!
I was drawn to your poster because I've always been campaign-adjacent; but I've never actively worked on one myself. I've done my share of phonebanking, and I agree that direct voter contact is especially effective for reaching lower-efficacy voters, especially in local races. What tips do you have for someone who wants to work for a campaign?
Hi Paul,
What drew me to your poster was the way it was presented but I think it’s pretty cool that you got to work on a campaign and it’s very interesting how phone banking was actually effective. How was your experience working in a campaign ?
Paul, I was shocked and interested to learn how you were able to do an internship for a campaign in NYC from Maryland. I learned that you helped oversee many phone banking session via zoom/online and helped tremendously in Rita Joseph's campaign. You emphasized the impact of your work at the campaign, helping with the large amount of calls that Rita Joseph's campaign was able to make. I was wondering how you began to internship for a campaign in NYC. In addition, I was wondering what more you learned about voter outreach. What was the key aspect of the phone banking sessions?
Hi Paul! I was drawn to your poster because of how interesting your work with the campaign seemed. I learned from your poster that working on a campaign is so much more work than I thought, and just so much goes into it. I wonder, how will you bring this new found knowledge into your career?