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In the Allentown Commons shopping complex, amid a steady stream of gymgoers to the Planet Fitness and the high-decibel denizens of an adjacent childcare center, ɫ����Ƶ sophomores Cady Carr and Rachel Obbard go about their work in the field office of three-term Representative Susan Wild—recruiting volunteers for canvassing shifts, setting up phone banking operations, and making final preparations for a big campaign rally that Saturday. If there’s any disagreement among their coworkers, it’s where the thermostat should be set.

With 25 days until Election Day, there is optimism among the Wild bunch: A recent Muhlenberg College/Morning Call poll gave the Democratic incumbent a six-point advantage over her Republican challenger, Ryan Mackenzie, in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District. But in a race that was decided by a mere 1.6 percent margin in 2022—fewer than 6,000 votes—nothing is taken for granted.

As deputy field organizers on Wild’s campaign, Obbard and Carr are among 23 Occidental students spread across 14 states participating this fall in Campaign Semester. The biennial program, unique to Occidental, immerses participants in the day-to-day operations of a battleground race for 10 weeks in the field, followed by five weeks back in the classroom with politics professors Regina Freer and Peter Dreier dissecting the factors that shaped the outcome.

While several ɫ����Ƶ students are striving to send Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House, 13 are working on congressional contests that could tip the balance of the House of Representatives. (Three of the candidates are looking to unseat Republican incumbents.) Wild’s seat is considered vital to the Democrats’ prospects of toppling the slim Republican majority in the House, which could have long-lasting ramifications for reproductive rights for women, access to healthcare, and resources for public schools, among other issues. 

Carr and Obbard chose the Wild campaign independent of each other but have developed a strong kinship over the last couple of months. “I heard about Campaign Semester on my first tour of ɫ����Ƶ when I was in my junior year of high school,” says Obbard, an undeclared major from Berkeley. “My tour guide was about to go on her Campaign Semester in Georgia. [Violet Appelsmith ’24 was a campaign fellow for Stacey Abrams’ 2022 gubernatorial bid.] And it sounded like such a neat program.”

“I really wanted to be on a house race because of the size and the ability to gain more responsibility,” says Carr, an undeclared major from Arlington, Va. She was already committed to Campaign Semester when Harris replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee for president. “I felt like this was going to be the biggest election of my entire life,” she adds.

“Cady and Rachel are full members of our field team,” says Campaign Semester alumna Ella Rubin ’24, campaign press assistant to Wild. “Each is assigned to a field organizer that has their own turf. We have big buses of volunteers from out of state every weekend and they get requested by name. They don’t want our field staff. They want Cady and Rachel.”

Rubin did Campaign Semester in fall 2022, when she interned in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District for Rep. Angie Craig with her best friend, Ava Wampold ’24 (who is currently working as a political associate for the House Majority PAC, a super PAC focused exclusively on electing Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives). The following summer, she got an internship in Washington, D.C., as press intern for Leader Hakeem Jeffries—“a truly incredible experience”—and went to work for Wild after graduating from Occidental last May.

“The research and problem solving that I fostered at ɫ����Ƶ is super-transferrable to a campaign,” Rubin says. “Every one of my professors in the Politics Department is so passionate and willing to help students navigate Campaign Semester or fill out internship applications. Having that community behind me definitely was helpful in transitioning into my current work as well.”

Much as it did for Rubin, Occidental laid the foundation for Carr and Obbard to make the most out of Campaign Semester. “I took Politics 101 in my first semester at ɫ����Ƶ, and I learned a lot in that class,” Carr says. “One of the most important things I learned was about PACs and super PACs, and knowing that going into this has been really impactful and has really deepened and enriched this on-the-ground experience.”

“During my first year at ɫ����Ƶ, I took a few Critical Theory and Social Justice classes and there was a lot of emphasis on critical thinking—taking in the perspectives of others and coming up with your own conclusions or solutions,” Obbard says. “I think having an open mind when listening to voters and being empathetic toward people is really important, especially when you’re talking to swing voters who just want to be heard.”

It’s Saturday morning in Wissinoming Park in northeast Philadelphia, a traditionally white working-class area that has been transformed in recent years by waves of Russian, Eastern European, and North African immigrants. (By some estimates, about 100 languages are spoken in a 5-square-mile area.) Twenty-four days before Election Day, hundreds of UNITE HERE canvassers, including Sadie Spletzer ’26, have clustered for a block party before a full day of door-knocking gets underway.

“There are very few roads to the White House that don't go through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes,” says Emiliano Rodriguez, secretary/treasurer of UNITE HERE, Local 274, The hospitality workers union was formed in 2004 by the merger of Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE) and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE).

Nationally, UNITE HERE boasts more than 250,000 hotel, casino, and food service workers—overwhelmingly women and people of color. “Local 274 has about 4,000 members but we really punch above our class when it comes to politics,” says Rodriguez, an 18-year veteran of UNITE HERE, which operates independent of the candidates’ own campaigns. “We run political operations that are much bigger than the scale of the local union itself.”

Back in 2016, when Donald Trump won the Keystone State by a little over 44,000 votes, there were 238,000 registered Democrats in Philadelphia “who just stayed home,” Rodriguez notes. “We were volunteering in the campaign and assuming things were going to be OK. But when Hillary Clinton lost Pennsylvania to Trump, we were pretty shocked. And we said we would never let that happen again.”

UNITE HERE Philadelphia onboarded 150 paid canvassers at the beginning of July, including Spletzer, a politics major from Chevy Chase, Md. “Sadie has built a real rapport with her canvass team,” Rodriguez says. “It’s really excellent to see that dynamic between all these canvassers and people who are coming from very different places in their lives, learning to work together and be out there on the doors.”

“Canvassing is basically getting a feel for what’s going on in the neighborhood and how people feel about the upcoming elections and who they’re actually going to vote for,” says Stazola “T1” Anthony, head safety officer of UNITE HERE Philadelphia. “Sadie is my best canvasser—she does an amazing job at her age,” he adds. “By the time she’s my age [a youthful 47], she can be running a campaign.”

With Occidental’s student employees having voted to form a union last spring, “It’s been really good to see how other unions function versus how Occidental functions and the difference between a school union and a hospitality union,” Spletzer says. “That’s been the most rewarding part of this experience.

“The biggest challenge has definitely been the stress,” she adds. “A lot has changed through the course of the campaign and it’s very hard, but it’s worth it. Campaign Semester is a wonderful opportunity and one of the reasons that I applied to ɫ����Ƶ in the first place.”

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr., who spoke at Occidental in April 2022, published an effusive of Campaign Semester in late May. “The Occidental model can be tweaked, but its objectives are hard to refute: Our colleges and universities should not be self-referential bubbles, our democratic system needs refreshment,” Dionne wrote, “and the next generation should know that our democracy welcomes its skills, its passions—and its impatience.”

Since Dionne’s column ran in more than 100 newspapers nationwide, “I've been getting calls from all over the country from professors saying, ‘How the hell did you do that? How can we do it at our college?’” says Dreier, the E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, who is retiring from Occidental next year. “The secret of success for this program is that students take the initiative. They decide what campaigns to work for. Most of them have had no campaign experience before, but they learn quickly.”

In sheer numbers, this year’s contingent of Campaign Semester is second only to the 2012 class, which saw 32 students fan out across 11 states. (Thirteen of them gravitated toward President Barack Obama ’83’s reelection campaign, while a solitary student toiled for Mitt Romney that fall—despite Dreier’s best efforts, Campaign Semester has attracted only a handful of students to Republican campaigns since its launch in 2008.) As measured by breadth, this year’s 23 participants are working in a record number of states and campaigns.

One area that has evolved over time is the issue of compensation. While Campaign Semester was conceived as a program where students would volunteer their efforts to the campaigns and receive 16 course units in return, “The legal definition of intern has changed a lot over the last couple of years,” Dreier says. “For the most part, the campaigns are now paying the students a wage because there are these new laws that say if you’re doing the job of somebody who gets paid, you need to get paid.”

Some students begin their campaign experience during the summer, Dreier adds, “but most of them start concurrently with the beginning of the fall semester. The campaigns arrange for the students to get free housing—typically with a local volunteer who has a spare bedroom. The College helps pay for students’ travel to and from their campaign destination, supported by the Andy Beattie ’75 Campaign Semester Endowment, which was established in 2018.  

Campaign Semester participants work full-time, although the hours and intensity of the work increase a few weeks before Election Day. “I just spoke to two Campaign Semester students today,” Freer says 11 days before the election. “They were both energized and talking like campaign operatives who have been doing this for years.”

Back in Wild’s Allentown field office, campaign volunteers drop off homemade meals on Thursdays—a three-cheese baked ziti was going fast when we paid the team a visit—and “Susan likes to bring us fruit and vegetables because she says we’re not eating enough of them,” Carr says.

“I definitely want to work on another campaign after this,” Obbard says. “My parents raised me in an environment where they told me that if I wanted to see change, I would need to do it myself. So, when I heard about Campaign Semester, I really wanted to participate. When I meet a candidate or have some interesting experience, my parents are very happy for me and just proud of the work that I’m doing.”

“My family has been incredibly supportive,” Carr adds before heading out for another round of knocking on doors. “My grandparents text and call me all the time and want to know how everything’s going. My dad actually let me borrow his car for this experience, so he doesn’t have a car right now.” Hey, everybody has their part in preserving democracy.