Knocking on prospective voters’ doors, conducting opposition research, helping with debate prep — it’s not every class that has students knee-deep in the election cycle. But Campaign 2018: A Hands-On Approach, a course team-taught by two Holy Cross alumni, Timothy Bishop ’72 and Peter Flaherty ’87, is about putting political learnings to the test in real-world campaigns.
The idea behind the innovative, immersive class was to bring two political operatives from different parties together to engage students in a deep study of the midterms — Bishop was a Democratic congressman from Long Island and Flaherty was deputy campaign manager of Mitt Romney’s presidential race.
Rather than rely solely on texts and lectures, students spend multiple days a week interning in campaigns across the Commonwealth soaking up strategies and real-world experience.
For Taylor Gensler ’20, a political science major, her internship is with Democrat Joe Early, who is running for reelection as Worcester County District Attorney. And the experience has been invaluable.
“It’s a small, grassroots effort, and I get a lot of face time with head staffers as well as Joe Early himself. I have done opponent research, researched crime statistics, debate prepped with Joe and also handled marketing posts on the Facebook page.”
That pragmatic experience aligns nicely with Flaherty’s hopes for the intern portion of the course.
“Anybody can study the theory or the policy associated with a subject matter, but with an internship, you actually see how it plays out in the real world on a day-to-day basis. I think that’s very helpful to the students, and has made them even more interested and engaged.”
Across town and on the other side of the political spectrum, Jerome Siangco ’19, an Asian Studies major, has been working on Republican Geoff Diehl’s Senate race against Elizabeth Warren.
“Interning for the Diehl campaign, I need to have foreknowledge on what Geoff Diehl stands for and be able to express that to voters,” says Siangco, who works alongside interns on other Republican races canvassing door to door, making phone calls and holding signs at early voting locations.