Caroline Sullivan (Clough Public Service Fellow and Undergraduate Student in Political Science, Boston College)

This summer, I participated in a Clough Center Public Service Fellowship project through interning on a State Senate campaign. I worked under Dylan Fernandes, a current State Representative from Cape Cod, MA who is running for an open seat in the State Senate. Through this internship, I served in a variety of roles including door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, event planning, staffing fundraising events, and developing campaign strategy. One of the major parts of my experience was door-to-door canvassing, which I had never done before. This involved knocking on doors and directly pitching Dylan to voters. Through this task, I engaged with voters one-on-one and learned about the issues that most affect their lives. One comment that I consistently received was how much people appreciated the door-to-door outreach, as so much of voter outreach is done electronically now. People valued that we were coming to their doors to talk about their state politics because it made them feel heard and important. Although I was nervous about knocking on stranger’s doors at first, I learned that generally, people are very kind and just want to know that their representatives are doing something about the issues that most profoundly affect them. Another large part of my summer internship experience was staffing fundraising events, where I had the opportunity to meet many experienced professionals in the political world. I worked on one fundraising event at David Ploufe’s house, which he was hosting in support of Dylan. David Plouffe was a campaign manager and presidential advisor to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and is now a senior advisor on Kamala Harris’ campaign. He spoke to us about the 2024 presidential race and provided insights on what he believes are the strengths and weaknesses of each campaign. I also had the opportunity to assist at an event hosted by O’Neill and Associates, a lobbying firm in Boston. Because I am interested in law, I got to learn more about political lobbying, which was very useful and insightful for me.

Additionally, I got to work at a community canvassing event for Dylan hosted by Senator Ed Markey, where I spoke with him and saw how he appeals to voters to vote for Dylan. I learned a great deal about politics through my exposure to various people and door-to-door canvassing on the campaign trail. Additionally, another essential part of my internship was researching the candidates whom he was running against and using that data to inform campaign strategy. One of the critical issues in the election is abortion access, and we learned that informing voters that Dylan is the only candidate in the race that supports the Roe Amendment was very effective. This was an especially effective strategy for undecided voters on the doors, as we learned that they reacted positively when we told them that Dylan supports a woman’s right to choose, but both of his opponents voted against the Roe Amendment. By talking to people at the doors, we also learned that voters from the Cape deeply cared about affordable housing, as there is a severe lack of housing for working-class people in the district. Thus, by contrasting Dylan’s record on affordable housing to both of his opponents, we highlighted his commitment to this issue, which also seemed to influence swing voters at the doors.

Working under Dylan also taught me the array of different skills running for a political office requires. One has to be smart, quick on their feet to answer questions, receptive to people’s questions and concerns, and extremely motivated. I greatly enjoyed working on this political campaign, and am happy to continue serving on the campaign through election day in November.

• Photo Credit: MVTIMES.COM