Want that First Job in politics? Be Flexible and Bold.
I often have many young people ask me how to get their first paid job in politics. Similar to journalism getting your foot in the door can be difficult even after working for free for years. I want to share a time in my life where I had difficulty and how I found a way to overcome it. Ironically it wasn’t the first job in politics I had issues getting, it was the second.
I had just graduated with my bachelors degree and launched a successful campaign to become a delegate to the RNC and being re-elected as Santa Fe County GOP Vice Chair. Despite this and the fact I worked a previous cycle in the Susana Martinez campaign I could not find a job in New Mexico. It was becoming very obvious that 2016 was going to be a very bad year for New Mexico Republicans. Donald Trump was wildly unpopular in the state and especially amongst Hispanics. This meant candidates were very stingy on hiring and no one in the state were leaving their Government jobs to work on campaigns. Having exclusively a political resume also proved to very difficult for me in the private sector, I applied to pretty much everywhere I could think of and no one really wanted to take me on as an employee.
I then went around the state pitching myself to every swing Republican campaign I could think of and all of them turned me down or offered me volunteer positions. It was then I finally had to make the decision of being flexible to moving out of state. This was big for me because I have never lived outside NM before except for one year as a child in Germantown MD where my father took a temporary job at the Department of Energy for a year. I also didn’t really want to move out of state but part of working in this industry is learning that you have to seek opportunities out and be willing to meet them wherever they will take you.
The first thing I did is try and formulate what I would be willing to do. I decided after much thought I would only move to a state in the South West because I did not want to have a big hassle moving incase things did not work out for whatever reason. The first campaign I pitched to was a congressional race in Nevada, everything seemed to be working out well but the timing was just not right after many negotiations. On to the next plan, I then decided to narrow it down to a statewide campaign, because statewides have to hire a lot of people. I first pitched myself to the Victory programs, I didn’t get any response back. Then I decided to try the Senate Races which I narrowed down to 2. Arizona and Colorado.
Arizona had Senator John McCain running for re-election, Senator McCain was a nationally known figure and a former Presidential candidate who was looking at the time to be in an unexpectedly tough primary and facing a strong general election challenge. In fact, a head hunter tried to pitch me on working on his primary opponent Kelli Ward’s race a few weeks earlier where I declined because I didn’t think that she was a good candidate nor did I think the Senator deserved to be primaried.
In Colorado, a young black veteran county commissioner shocked the CO GOP world by winning a primary for the US Senate. The only major political force that even endorsed this guy was Ted Cruz. Now I didn’t know much about Mr. Glenn but I was very impressed by what I did see. I looked at him the same way people looked at John James today. I may have overestimated his political ability. More on that in a second.
After narrowing down to these two candidates I started to do my homework. I studied their websites and started calling everyone I could for more information on how to get in contact with people who may work for these campaigns. I got tons of information on Mr. Glenn but no one would return my calls, emails, etc. I tried for weeks and couldn’t get a hold of anyone. I started to wonder, how can this guy run a campaign if no one can contact him? I decided to shoot for McCain.
Don’t get me wrong, I tried for Glenn first because I thought McCain was a long shot. I wasn’t from the state, he was a known entity, and he had staff for decades. The major difference between the two candidates though, McCain’s people responded. I started on twitter where i found an intern, I DMed her and asked how someone could get involved. 3 minutes later I am given a link to be an “online intern”. I said perfect, this is how I could get an audience with someone who may hire me. Less than 3 hours after I filled out the form I got a call from a staffer. The dude started pitching me on the internship and I stopped him and said “Actually I want a field job, it can be anywhere in the State; I will move there and have previous experience doing it. What’s your bosses email? I want to give him my resume.” To my shock this boldness got a good response. Unknown to me at the time they needed someone to run a rural office in Northern Arizona, and my call was like a god send. So he put me on hold, got his bosses email and I penned the email below.
“Hello, my name is Samuel LeDoux and I was interested in a field rep position on your campaign. I’ve admired Mr. McCain since his 2008 presidential run and I think he’s been a fantastic Senator for our country. I’d be honored if Mr. McCain would have me on his campaign team. I have always loved working the field for our Republican Candidates and have done so since I’ve been eligible to vote in 2010. I was a field rep on Susana Martinez’s 2014 Re-election campaign and fought hard in one of the most Democratic counties in the state. I specialize in Latino and Native American outreach and I think I’d be helpful in the Northern part of your state. Attached is my resume and I hope to hear back from you.
Samuel LeDoux”
A couple of email exchanges and a few interviews and negotiations later and I got the job.
After already accepting the job, I got a response from Darryl Glenn’s campaign. It was already too late and the exchange between me and his staffers and the candidate via email didn’t give me too much confidence in their operation, they were concerned I wasn’t from the state and weren’t willing to give me an interview. They couldn’t see the talent someone like me with half a decade of political experience could bring to the table. John McCain won his re-election where Mr. Glenn had difficulty pivoting towards a general election campaign. A lot in politics is about communication, timing, and flexibility. McCain’s team was good at communicating, took an opportunity, and was flexible, I was the same and the timing was perfect. Put yourself out there, know your value, and don’t be afraid. You never know where it will take you.
