I’ve had the privilege of managing two campaigns in Iowa House District 99, which covers Burlington and some of the smaller surrounding towns. First for former Rep. Dennis Cohoon in 2022, and later Jim Beres in 2024. While we lost both of these campaigns, I am extremely proud of the campaigns we ran. I gained valuable administrative, communication and strategic planning skills. I forged many new relationships. I was able to go to a new place, and begin constructing an infrastructure of volunteers and contacts, almost from scratch. I got to witness the passion of Iowans firsthand as they canvassed, called phones, wrote postcards and organized within their communities. Campaign management has really gotten me fired up to serve others. Although, I can’t deny the immense amount of help I had from the previous campaign manager, local activists, and the state party as a whole.

I had a variety of duties and responsibilities in this position. I had to help manage the schedule for my candidates. I managed their time doing finance calls with donors, facilitated financial reporting, executed a media buy, scheduled door knocking, and ensured we were all in the loop for speaking events. Managing Dennis’ time had some unique challenges. He would only turn his phone on once or twice per day. So I had to be extremely efficient and prepared during our chats. The biggest challenge for Jim’s campaign was building an audience and supporters from scratch. Jim knew plenty of people, but his name recognition was almost zero compared to Dennis. Through steady canvassing, frequent public appearances, and utilizing existing networks, we were able to get his name out there.

Outside of managing my candidate’s time, a lot of my job was field organizing. I had to develop their volunteer infrastructure. I made hundreds of volunteer recruitment calls and knocked thousands of doors throughout both election cycles. Some were cold calls from virtual phone banks, and others were contacts I curated from local volunteers and activists. I had to find people to take our yard signs. I had to get events planned. I had to fundraise. I recruited and scheduled volunteers to write postcards, knock doors, call phones, and even distribute signs. I even got a Republican and couple high schoolers to get involved with our campaigns! What I think I did the best, though, was managing social media. My candidates didn’t post to Facebook much. I was able to grow their online presence by posting a variety of photos and videos several times a week from speaking events, candidate forums and other public appearances, and by joining local Facebook groups to share posts and stay connected.

I encountered many challenges during this time. Some were unique to the district, and others were shared across Iowa. People weren’t interested in volunteering. Some didn’t like our candidates. I was not very familiar with many of the systems available to me my first time around. I had a bit of a learning curve my first week or two as I learned how to use the VAN, and other tools such as Mobilize and ActBlue. I had to learn about cutting turf, pulling lists, finding specific contacts. Basically, I had to learn everything about Vote Builder.

Outside of managing people and learning new systems, I had to overcome personal challenges to find success in this position. I absolutely hated cold calling people before this job, and talking strangers on the phone in general really. I still hate it to be honest, but I was able to step out of my comfort zone and get relatively comfortable making these phone calls and engaging with people on the phone. Staying motivated and positive was also difficult at times. People are getting fed up with politics, and especially election season. Many people didn’t take kindly to cold calling or having people knock on their door. Having a short memory, great patience, and constantly reminding myself about the importance of getting out the vote, though, was able to push me through the less fun moments.

It was tough to find volunteers, especially young ones. My volunteer base were largely people who had been doing it for decades. There were very few younger people to begin taking over. Part of my goal was to help build this infrastructure for future campaign managers to rely upon. I was able to forge relationships with some local activists and begin building a network of volunteers for the future.

We coordinated with several other campaigns to maximize our volunteer capacity and hit more targets in HD 99. I got to meet other organizers and see how they do things a bit differently on a larger scale. Over two cycles, we coordinated with many other campaigns to host events, including Christina Bohannan, Nannette Griffin, Jeff Poulter, Rob Sand and Deidre DeJear. My favorite event we planned was a trivia night town hall for Jim Beres & Nannette Griffin.

I learned a lot in this short time. I learned the basics of managing a campaign, from volunteers and the candidate to rules and ethics. I learned about systems like Vote Builder, and tons about the city of Burlington. I learned a lot about my own abilities and competencies, and where I can improve for the future. It’s fired up my passion for public service.

Browse the galleries below and check out some relics from the campaigns.