While, door-to-door campaigning, Junior Rafi Seigel knocks on the door of a family household in Maryland’s sixth district, asking them to vote for CESJDS alumnus and State Delegate Joe Vogel for Congress. Students at JDS have been volunteering for Vogel’s campaign for two months knocking on doors and phone banking, all in hopes of aiding Vogel’s campaign and building professional relationships.
Working in the political field and helping with a campaign is an exciting opportunity for high school students with an interest in politics who are looking to boost their extracurricular activities. The connections in the political field that students like Seigel and junior Adam Bachrach have gained will be useful to them throughout their lifetime.
“I’ve made a lot of connections. I’ve gotten to know Joe Vogel himself and developed a relationship with him as well as his campaign manager and chief of staff,” Seigel said. “Developing relationships with all these people definitely helped me get involved in the political sphere, and hope that in the future it can lead to more opportunities for me.”
During his time in high school at JDS, Vogel got involved with volunteering in his first campaign right before his senior year. This experience led him to get further involved in politics, which eventually inspired him to run for US Congress himself.
“The first campaign that I worked on, I liked the candidate’s position on gun safety and I liked her position on addressing climate change, but I was really fired up when she won,” Vogel said. “I was so excited and I think it showed me the power that we all have to make a difference in our politics even at a young age.”
On Vogel’s campaign, a lot of JDS student volunteers were working to get as many votes as possible in Maryland’s sixth district, whose domain includes western Maryland. Bachrach joined Vogel’s campaign because he connected to Vogel through his AZA chapter in BBYO and heard that he was running for Congress.
“I first met him [at BBYO] and he’s really nice, and I thought, you know, for a good cause and a good person, it’s worth going knocking on doors,” Bachrach said.
Every few weekends Bachrach went knocking on doors in western Maryland, trying to get votes for Vogel, as well as getting their input on important issues to them. The primary for Vogel was on Tuesday, May 15, and even though they lost the primary, they still received well north of 10,000 votes in the primary this year, with even more votes that they are still waiting for from the mail in ballots.
“That was because of the hard work that all these volunteers put in every single day making those calls, sending those texts,” Vogel said. “It’s just really exciting when everyone was able to play a part in building here. And look, I’ve been a part of winning campaigns in the past and I’ve been a part of losing campaigns in the past, but the most important part is not giving up and continuing to fight and continuing to make sure that we work to advance the values that we share.”
Vogel’s campaign was a way for students to get involved in the community and expand their interests while getting to know important connections for later in life. They were able to develop a connection with people on Vogel’s campaign staff, connections that may lead to more opportunities in the future.
“I hope that the takeaway for those folks that were involved in our campaign is recognizing just how much power they have in making a difference and making an impact in our politics,” Vogel said.
