She is just 21, but that hasn’t stopped Indian American Rachana Desai from holding a prestigious
position in Democratic candidate Vice- President Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, all thanks to a chance telephone call! The Detroit, Michigan-born Desai is assistant northeast political director at the Gore-Joe Lieberman campaign headquarters.
But she acknowledges it was the chance phone call from the campaign to her dorm-mate in college, which she answered, that finally led to her becoming one of the youngest workers in the campaign.
Ms. Desai has one semester left to go before she receives her bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of South Carolina in Columbia where her Gujarat-born parents now live and own and operate a hotel.
She got a chance to help setting up for the event as Gore was coming to the Columbia Airport in South Carolina, and her dorm-mate was not available to answer the call. She found her first foray so fascinating and really interesting and from that point on, she volunteered in the Democratic Party, and then ultimately took some time off college to work full-time in the campaign.
She is a political junkie that a few weeks into working for the Democratic Party her love for politics knew no bounds and I changed from being a biology and pre-med major to a political science major. She also mentioned that her parents weren’t appalled and have been supportive.
Her job entails setting up State offices and dealing with the politics of the northeast corridor, including areas north Maryland, including West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey.
- nriol.com report
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