Steven Vogel: Campaign Manager Intern with Nora Slawik

How did you find this internship?

A professor, Dennis Donovan, recommended I meet with Nora Slawik, the Mayor of Maplewood, for an informational interview. Nora and I hit it off at our meeting, and she contacted me a couple weeks later saying she needed a campaign manager, and I accepted.

What were your primary responsibilities while at your internship?

Anything and everything involved with a campaign-- managing volunteers, setting the agenda and strategy, door knocking, phone banks, finances, social media engagement, election day party planning (we won 63%-36%!), etc. If Nora told me to do something, and it wasn't something I could delegate to someone on my team, I did it!

How did this experience help you prepare for your future career?

As someone who wants to run for office myself today, it was extremely helpful seeing how all the various campaign components fit together at a high level, rather than just volunteering for one specific campaign aspect. Plus, campaign strategy is not an exact science; just getting a feel for general direction setting and prioritization of different campaign elements at different times was very insightful.

What did you most enjoy?

Door knocking is an activity that some people hate. It's awkward, forced, and exhausting. Yet, I really enjoyed it. It's a valuable way to meet people in your community, and more importantly, constituents deserve to either hear candidates' platforms or meet their incumbent officials. A lot of state DFL people will advise cutting down door knocking to just strong or lean Dem voters. But I strongly believe in engaging citizens, and the best way to do that is to go knock on their doors, regardless of whether or not they did/will vote for you.

What is the one piece of advice you would give someone following your footsteps?

Meet with as many people as possible. I was by no means looking for an internship; I just connected with the right people and was given a lucky break. I was not lucky however, by being offered a position by the first person I met with. I meet with at least one person every 1-2 weeks who I think would be a valuable contact. The vast majority of these meetings yield no fruit (other than random snippets of advice), and that's ok. In the end, the one consequential meeting is worth the vast amount of other meetings one will carry out.

What career competencies did you develop most during your internship?

Applied Problem Solving, Innovation & Creativity.