(The 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Field Staff)
I don't like to mention specific jobs or projects I'm working on on the blog but in this case I will make an exception. As many of you know, during the 2020 cycle I had the extremely fortunate, rewarding. and exciting opportunity to be the Director and Senior Advisor to very campaign on which my career began, the Minnesota DFL Coordinated. While there were many differences between my first campaign and my most recent (please see, global pandemic) there were a lot of similarities including that they both ended with the question, "What now?"
As I navigated and continue to navigate my own answers to that question I realized how helpful it would be for someone to help me draw a line between where I am now and where I might want to go. I thought that the brilliant, hard-working and fun to be around 2020 Minnesota Coordinated team might like the same thing. Using social media, a well-preserved t-shirt that just happened to have the 2006 Coordinated staff list on the back, and the 2006 DFL Coordinated Alumni Google group (probably like the year google groups were invented) I reached out to my former colleagues to ask them where they'd been.
Below are the results.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Regional Field Director, CD-6
What is your current or most recent position?
Political Consultant/Campaign Manager for Rep. Dean Phillips
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?
RFD -> Pol Director for Rep. Tim Walz -> CM for Tim Walz (2010) -> Marriage Equality campaign (MN) -> starting my own consulting firm (and working for Rep. Dean Phillips)
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Working and managing a team of people. Volunteer recruitment and identifying volunteers who can lead recruiting others makes it all so much easier.
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
Showing up is so important - even when at first they don't pay you. Also, treat others the way you want to be treated.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? Regional Field Director, CD-1 (aka CampaignSick's first boss)
What is your current or most recent position?
Chief of Staff to Congressman Jim Himes
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?After a brief stint in DC helping set up Tim Walz's mail operation, went on a bunch of other campaigns around the country until I hit the campaigner's magic trifecta: liked the candidate, won, and there was a job afterward. After twoish years as Jim's district director, I moved down to DC.
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Navigating difficult political situations and trying to unite diverse interests around common goals, and mitigating obstacles that can't be brought into the fold. Also first time as paid manager, learned a lot about how to support and develop talent.
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
Don't immediately hop at the next opportunity you see without checking in with mentors first. Conversely, don't agonize over making sure the next move is 'perfect.' If you're staying in politics, you have a long way to go, and there are a lot of different paths to get to your goal.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Field Organizer, CD-2
What is your current or most recent position?
Field and Data Director, Environmental Voter Project
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?
I continue to work MN elections and, briefly, was with the DCCC in IN08. I worked with the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation for three years and then went to get an MPP from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at University of Minnesota. I joined my current organization in its infancy in 2016 and helped with it's expansion to a multi-state organization.
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Nuts and bolts of organizing and elections, volunteer management, how to better work with supervisors, how to manage an intern program.
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
Think big - organizers can frequently be surprised at how quickly they can move into leadership positions. And don't be afraid to join the underdog campaign.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Field Organizer, CD-3
What is your current or most recent position?
Director of Data & Communications Strategy for Eastman Music Company
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?
After 2006, I worked for Obama in 2007 and 2008 moving all over the country. I then did various contract gigs for non-profits, the DNC, and other campaigns before moving into consulting, which brought me to Ohio and Michigan for wind energy advocacy for Axelrod's old public affairs company and then the wildest ride of my life consulting and living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in 2012. After coming back to America, I worked back home in Minneapolis for a couple years before being recruited to a startup in Los Angeles, got laid off there after 1 year, and then luckily got picked up by a client I brought on prior to being laid off. That's my current job at Eastman, which is my longest-standing job, and I love it.
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
There are so many small things you learn that translate to the working world: never fearing a phone conversation or a doorknock or in-person convo at an event, the importance of and various tactics to maximize signup data, the ability to operate inside an established database, persuasion and messaging techniques, telling your story, and so much more I'm not remembering right now.
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
It wasn't until I found my current job at Eastman that I finally was able to live my life for me. After working at Eastman for a year, I discovered that this is ultimately what I wanted, and maybe it's something you'll come to realize if it's right for you. I was married to the campaigns and contracts and adventures, and while I wouldn't take back the experience for anything, I am so fucking happy I found a job I love that only requires 40ish hours per week from me. It allowed me to learn more about myself other than what I offer as an employee. With the job security and free time I was able to get healthy, save money, start a family, become a badass cook, experience all this amazing city (Los Angeles) has to offer, and so much more. It took over a decade for me to get here, and not every job any of us have is going to be our dream job (even this job that I love isn't my "dream job"), but it'll help us figure out what we want and what we don't want in our life. Good luck out there.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Field Organizer
What is your current or most recent position?
Director, Sustainable Finance, S&P Global
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?
I worked briefly for the DFL in the Comms office then as FD for Terri Bonoff’s Congressional Campaign. Then I got my MPA at the LBJ School at University of Texas, and worked part-time at Texas Impact, an interfaith social justice organization. After Austin, I moved to Washington DC, and worked for the Executive Office of the President at OMB, overseeing Federal credit programs and the Army Corps of Engineers budget for six and a half years. In 2016, I moved to the private sector but stayed in the area of infrastructure finance and environmental and social issues, first as a credit ratings analyst in the US Public Finance practice working on utilities, and now as a Director in our Sustainable Finance group.
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Managing people and volunteers, crisis management, patience and perseverance, and I have been a stalwart defender of work-life balance since I left campaigns.
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
Be open to new ideas of fulfillment, but know that your skills are transferable and valuable wherever you are.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Field Organizer
What is your current or most recent position?
Controller, Colorado's Office of the Governor
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?I kept on the campaign trail, working Senate races and a presidential. In 2012, I managed a Congressional race in S. Florida, won, and went to Capitol Hill. I left the Hill in 2015 and managed a US Senate Race. Since then I've been in Colorado on campaigns and currently in the Governor's Office.
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Like many first time organizers, I was fresh out of college and excited to be on the campaign trail. What I didn't expect was to be in a rural area by myself for much of the campaign. That meant figuring things out on my own; from how to fix downed VOIP phones to the best way to cut rural turf using giant maps picked up from the county courthouses. The most important thing I learned was how to listen and empathize with my volunteers and their community. These were citizens desperate to make positive change in their community after 6 years of George W. Bush, but they didn't need to spend 10 hours a week in the field office. Empathy is a totally underrated skill and not taught in poli sci classes, but is what good politics should really be about. It really helped me connect and understand the needs of my vols and the turf. It helped me make solid canvass plans, recruit volunteers, and build lasting relationships. Trying to be emotionally smarter has helped me ever since.
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
Build relationships and don't stop learning.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Regional Field Director, CD-7
What is your current or most recent position?
COO, Rise
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?
Obama primary and general election campaigns 07-08, USDA appointee 09-16, briefly jumped back into electoral politics in 2017, advocating for sexual assault survivors ever since
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Relationships matter and organizing works
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
If you love campaigns, do it until you can't any more. If you don't, there are plenty of ways to work in politics without working in politics. Keep up with every positive connection you have; everyone you work with, everyone you made an impact on, everyone that made an impact on you
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Field Organizer, CD-1
What is your current or most recent position?
I'm a litigator in private practice at a law firm in New York.
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle? After the 2006 election, I moved to DC to work on the Hill for several years before heading to law school in California. I then clerked for two judges and moved to New York to practice law.
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Being a field organizer taught me grit. It was a freeing realization when dialing for volunteers to learn firsthand that inevitably, after receiving 99 not-homes, wrong numbers, and rejections, I was bound to eventually find that person who desperately wanted to join our cause. The same is true in life -- stay strong through the not-homes and wrong numbers, and big goals are possible.
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
Be patient. Work hard. Never give up.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Field Organizer, CD-4
What is your current or most recent position?
Assistant Attorney General for the State of Minnesota
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?
After 06, I moved to Washington DC and worked for Amy Klobuchar and Jeff Merkley in the US Senate for about 5 years. Then returned to Minnesota and received my law degree from the University of Minnesota.
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
There is no substitute for work. Field work is hard work but working together as a team helps lighten the load.
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
If you like politics, go to DC. It's awesome when you're young. If you think you might want to be a lawyer, don't wait too long. It's way harder the longer you wait.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Regional Field Director, CD-5
What is your current or most recent position?
CEO, VoteRiders
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?
Finished law school, 08 and 10 cycles in MN, 7+ years at DLCC, 3+ Years at VoteRiders
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Middle management is hard. Learned to a) be on time to everything, b) tell the truth always, c) advocate for the path that makes clearly drives reality toward your goals, d) implement the plan as written, e) stay in your lane, f) be kind to others
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
1) see above, 2) talk w everyone - learn how this all fits together, 3) follow your passion and be open to possibilities you may not have considered
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Field Organizer
What is your current or most recent position?
Nurse practitioner
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?
Worked in education nonprofits for a couple of years then went to nursing school in 2010. Became an NP in 2013. Now work as a pediatric NP.
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Long hours and hard work
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
Time management skills and multitasking are key on campaigns as well as in medicine. Also teamwork.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Field Director
What is your current or most recent position?
Climate and energy policy professional
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?
After '06, I helped launch a labor/environmental coalition called the BlueGreen Alliance, focused on clean energy job advocacy. I then got my MBA at the University of Minnesota and began working on environmental and corporate sustainability at a Fortune 500 company. However, I was lured back to the politics and spent five years as a senior advisor on environmental policy issues for Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, respectively.
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Working on the '06 campaign was especially helpful when I worked in the Governor's office. Understanding the tensions that can happen within the DFL based on regional/local politics and how that can affect a statewide legislative agenda was critical to that role.
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
Try things! It may not lead you to that perfect career path, but you should not think of that path as linear. You will at times pick the wrong job - it will be OK. Being willing to try new things, take some reasonable risks, and being willing to move on when things aren't the right fit will help prevent looking back and feeling regret.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Intern, CD-1
What is your current or most recent position?
Analytics director for advertising agency
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?
Stayed active with politics through College Dems at American University in DC. Then worked as a pollster for 8 years, working on ballot initiatives, IEs, lobbying campaigns, and commercial clients. For example, spent five years doing reseach/ad testing for 2020 Census ad campaign on a federal contract. Currently working on an ad campaign for HHS to encourage COVID-19 vaccines. Jeez... sounds like a lot when I put it that way...
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Initiative-- it takes courage to just start a conversation with someone and trust that you'll be able to come through alright. Also, i learned that you have to LOOK for tasks that need doing rather than waiting for someone to task you.
One more-- Election night 2006, I was GOTV by flashlight in Austin MN with a partnee. It was cold and windy. Every voter we'd talked to for the last hour had already voted. Polls closed in 15 minutes. My canvas partner (who had the car) wanted to go. I decided to knock one last door-- an elderly woman answered. She had called our campaign office to setup a ride for herself and her daughter, but the driver never came.... !!! We had them jump in the car and they got into line to vote with 5 minutes to spare. That extra door made all the tramping around in the dark worth it.
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
Be willing to do the little & boring things the right way. Everyone has a role to play and you want to gain a reputation as reliable. This is a people business, job titles don't matter long term. Watch people you admire (see Nancy on making every volunteer feel appriciated) and try to figure out their magic. Remember to say thank you as many times as possible.
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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?
Intern, CD-1
What is your current or most recent position?
Deputy Director for Research, The White House
Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?
I’ve worked in a variety of campaign and consulting jobs since moving to DC in 2011, interning and then working full time at two polling firms in the 2012 cycle, working at an opposition research consultant in the 14 and 16 cycles, Deputy Research Director / Research Director for the Independent Expenditure at the Democratic Governors Association in 2018. Biden for President Deputy Research Director 2019-2020, followed by the same position on the Biden-Harris transition and the White House.
What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?
Keep working hard for strong candidates you believe in and (eventually) things will work out. Always ask questions if you’re not sure what you’re doing on a campaign — your supervisor would rather spend five minutes showing you how to do something than an hour fixing your mistake.
What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?
Never be afraid to ask your precious bosses for help applying to new jobs — they want to help you. Keep in touch with old bosses, committee (dccc dscc dnc dfl etc) staff and consultants. Never get despondent about [what you think is] your dream job not working out. Go out of your way to help people you manage with future endeavors. Build a diverse team. Try to absorb as much knowledge as possible about your boss’s record and positions so you/coworkers never contradict them. Never work late for the sake of looking like working late or you’ll burn yourself out. Take post election vacations and turn off twitter (and always remember it isn’t real life!).
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I know this is a hard time for a like of campaigners who are job searching or aware that they will be again soon. What advice/answers would be helpful to you as you reach for your goals? Tweet me @CampaignSick and let me knoe!
Campaign Love and Mine,
Nancy
