Projects
Below is a selection of legislative and messaging projects that I have worked on in the past year. Click to see larger portfolios of my advocacy and campaign work.
Messaging School Choice to the Suburbs
Connecticut, and Fairfield County in particular, have some of the most racially segregated public school districts in the country. Republican activists consistently incite fear and mistrust surrounding any state-level attempt to diversify local school systems.
In 2021, a trio of Democratic legislators are seeking to expand Open Choice to the cities of Danbury and Norwalk, a program that would allow students from overcrowded, majority-minority districts to fill empty seats in low-enrollment suburban districts on a voluntary basis. I developed a two-part strategy to: 1) Generate support for the legislation in Danbury and Norwalk, where parents were frustrated over overcrowding, and 2) Convince skeptical parents in suburban districts that the legislation would have a net positive impact on both classroom experience and district budgets.
In the urban districts, Senators Bob Duff and Julie Kushner, on social media and through mass e-mails, emphasized Open Choice as an immediate solution to overcrowding while funding for new high schools in each city remained hung up in Hartford.
In the suburban districts, Senator Will Haskell brought his message directly to hostile Facebook groups, such as “Hands Off Our Schools” and its nearly 10,000 members in Fairfield County.
Fact Checking Police Unions
In the summer of 2020, Connecticut Democrats sought to pass a major police accountability reform bill. Police unions and Republican politicians fought the legislation tooth and nail, and developed a list of ten to twelve talking points that they repeated in tandem during committee meetings and during public hearings.
I worked with our caucus policy department to clearly and succinctly refute each of those talking points as part of a “Myth vs. Fact” social media and e-mail series sent out through multiple senators’ pages. I also worked with Senator Will Haskell to create an informal, five minute “fact-checking” video the day before an important committee vote.
Both the “Myth vs. Fact” graphics and Sen. Haskell’s video were shared and viewed widely across the state, and eventually prompted the Republican Senate caucus to issue their own last-minute press release the night before the final vote.
The police accountability legislation passed the House and Senate on party lines and became law.
Insulin Rapid Response
In January 2019, Democrats in Connecticut’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee proposed a cap on the price of insulin.
On the morning of February 7th, a local Republican politician posted a screenshot of the proposed legislation and intentionally misconstrued the intent of the bill to imply that it would levy a new tax on diabetes patients. The post went viral within right-leaning Facebook groups around the state, reaching several thousand residents within a few hours and causing a surge of angry comments, e-mails and phone calls to legislative offices.
I worked with the bills’ sponsors and senior caucus staff to draft a clear, concise response message and distribute fact-checking graphics on social media through senators’ individual pages within the day. The response quickly helped correct the record and stem the flow of social media confusion.
Later that summer, the insulin price cap passed unanimously through the state Senate and became law.
