Hector Fajardo ’19

Massachusetts Democratic Party, Boston, MA

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh stopped by our Mass Dems office.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh stopped by our Mass Dems office.

I became interested in American government and politics in high school, after learning about it in my classes. It intrigued me, but for a long time I believed direct participation in it was reserved for older wealthy white men, not Dominican immigrants like myself. The results of this past election, while shocking many people, served to confirm my sentiment. That being said, it had the unforeseen effect of energizing many people who don’t fit the traditional mold into getting involved, which made me realize that I had a shot at participating in politics. There were some jobs and internships that interested me, but financially these would be a stretch for me and my family. I then remembered that Williams offers ASIP grants for the type of job that I would be interested in applying to, so I applied to an internship with the Massachusetts Democratic Party and became a political operations intern.

The Massachusetts Democratic Party is the state branch of the national Democratic Party. Since Massachusetts is a solidly progressive state, the party has a stronghold on politics in the state at practically all but the gubernatorial level. This meant that I got to engage with politicians as local as city councilors, up to U.S. Senators from Massachusetts. The party focuses on providing the platform, tools, and framework that progressive candidates need to run successful campaigns. This year was particularly important as one of the first tasks worked on was running a nominating convention for the state in Worcester, which only happens every four years and is when elected delegates from all over the state vote on democratic candidates that the party will endorse going into the primaries. Apart from the endorsement of those candidates in contested elections, the party maintains a distance from similar instances which involve democrats running against each other, but devotes resources for coordinated campaigns in races that have a single democratic candidate running against republicans.

My tasks as a political intern were broad. I helped set up and run the endorsing convention for thousands of attendees. I also got involved in campaigning and canvassing for some of the candidates from our coordinated campaigns in Worcester County as we hoped to reclaim some seats that had flipped from red to blue. I additionally co-ran the party’s Facebook page for minority democrats. And I was involved with efforts to get citizens around Boston to register to vote before the August 20th deadline. These tasks do not cover all that I did, but they were some of the most important tasks that I had the pleasure of participating in.

Some of my fellow interns and me working and taking notes while attending a training on campaigning that covered canvassing using a turf-based app called MiniVAN.
Some of my fellow interns and me working and taking notes while attending a training on campaigning that covered canvassing using a turf-based app called MiniVAN.

Working at Mass Dems was the most impactful experience for my professional development that I have had so far. While classrooms are great at discussing government and politics as concepts, it took actual participation in it for me to learn and care about the ways that it functions. I learned that my level of understanding of how campaigns are run, and how government functions on a more local level, were superficial. I took that as an opportunity to develop crucial technical skills that I had not developed such as how to use VoteBuilder, MiniVAN, HubDialer, and other tools used to run campaigns all over the nation. These tools are often behind mobilization and get-out-the-vote efforts, which end up dictating the way that elections go. Unlike most people, including politicians, I got to see and participate in the behind the scenes of campaigns ranging from traditional, to write-in campaigns.

My time at the Mass Dems also made me more aware and interested in issues around the state, by helping out with some coordinated campaigns in Worcester County. That central region of the state does not have much in common with Boston. Many of its issues such as serious water contamination and a scarcity of staff in its hospitals, are ones that are not often shared in the eastern coast of the state. However, going door to door and speaking with the county’s residents, I learned about their struggles and aspirations, and I encouraged them to vote for Democratic candidates that will address those issues. When I was not in Worcester County, my field experience mostly consisted of going to different parts of Boston and helping its citizens register to vote. Despite how progressive Massachusetts is, it lags behind many other states in terms of voting accessibility so these efforts were crucial and helped demystify the registration process for some community members. I especially liked registering people to vote because we would often get into conversations about the state of affairs of the United States and I heard really interesting perspectives from people that, now that they were registered, would be able to have their voices heard around the nation through their votes.

After successfully hosting the Massachusetts Democratic Convention for thousands of attendees, all interns are pictured here with U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
After successfully hosting the Massachusetts Democratic Convention for thousands of attendees, all interns are pictured here with U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

The Mass Dems internship reinforced my desire to work in government and politics. I learned more about the importance of representation as I got to hear why people support the politicians and policies that they support, and how much some politicians are fighting for their constituents. It made me hopeful that, particularly the younger generations, will one day make politics seem less malignant as they will represent the will of the people and what is beneficial for them. My internship also made me see a clearer path towards running for office someday, as I now have connections that can help me establish a base from which to launch my political career. I will continue taking similar American policy political science classes to the ones I have been taking, but will now have greater insight in how these policies affect constituents on at a state level.

Of course, the doors that Mass Dems has opened for me would not have been available were it not for the ASIP from the Williams ’68 Center for Career Exploration and the George J. Mead Internship Fund. Without this, I would not have been able to be a part of this internship and would not have fostered the connections that I was able to foster. I thank you all.