Monday afternoon, Bess Evans '07, David Dietz '11 and Duncan Wolfe '11 returned to campus to discuss from their experience in politics in “From Iowa to the White House: Our time with President Barack Obama” in Watson Forum.
“Do you want to come to Iowa and help us change the world? It was in that moment that I think my whole life trajectory was changed,” said Evans, former senior associate director and senior policy advisor at the White House.
Evans became involved in the Obama Campaign in Iowa through now former Media Fellows director and professor Dr. Dave Bohmer connections. Dietz is a former Special Assistant, Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and Duncan is former photographer, videographer, digital director for the White House.
When Evans gave a presentation to a Media Fellows class in 2008 offering a Winter Term opportunity for students to campaign in Iowa for Barack Obama’s presidency, Wolfe and Dietz, first-years at the time, jumped at the opportunity. They spent the following January in rural Iowa making phone calls and knocking on doors, having no clue it would lead them to D.C.
“From the beginning it was clear it was something special happening in Iowa, we walked in there not really knowing, and Bess has an office full of like one hundred people at midnight, on a Tuesday, on New Year’s Day,” Dietz said. “Iowa was definitely the experience that I think kept me with the political bug.”
Following their work on both of President Obama’s campaigns, Evans, Dietz and Wolfe secured various positions in the White House such as a confidential assistant in the Office on Violence Against Women for Evans or working on the Presidential Advance team for Dietz.
After recapping each of their careers, Wolfe, Dietz and Evans took questions from the audience such as those concerning the Democratic Party. “Coming from a person who identifies as a Democrat, I think the midterms are going to be tough for us. Even in the best of circumstances it would be a tough year and we are not in the best of circumstances,” said Evans. “So, I think it’s going to require a level of public engagement with local elections.”