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Meet 5 Chicago Millennials who volunteer for campaigns

With Election Day (that would be Nov. 8, in case you forgot) approaching, we’ll soon be given the task of casting our ballots and electing a new U.S. president, among other local, state and federal officials.

As these races near their apex, the candidates’ campaigns wouldn’t have been possible without the donation of time and energy from dedicated volunteers. These five Chicago Millennials have a passion for politics and community outreach. They’ve all volunteered on campaigns that strongly align with their own views, values and ideas, hoping to change the way our generation thinks about and engages with government.

Name: Ellie Thorman

Age: 19

Party Affiliation: Democrat

Lives in: Lincoln Park

A sophomore at DePaul University, Ellie Thorman has sought out every opportunity available to get involved in community organizing and campaign volunteering. Originally hailing from Cleveland—Ohio is a political battleground state—Thorman believes being raised in that environment shaped her love for politics.

In 2012, she worked as a summer fellow with Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, where she learned the nuts and bolts of campaign work and grassroots organizing. This past summer, she did work for the Hillary Clinton campaign, and she currently works as an intern for U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s (D-Ill.) campaign.

Outside of her college classes, homework and social life, Thorman is also a member of the DePaul Democrats and spends roughly 22 hours a week working on campaign-related activities, which include canvassing (going door to door drumming up votes), phone banking (soliciting donations, calling constituents) and recruiting and training other volunteers.

“The reason I love campaigns isn’t the fancy part. It’s the gritty, hard work, long hours and crappy office side of the equation,” Thorman said. “It’s working with so many people from all aspects of life in order to be a part of something bigger than myself, in order to change the world.

“Whether that’s for a political candidate, a bill, policy, whether national, local, school-based or even among a small group of people, collective action and coming together is what drives me.”

Name: Amber Loveshe

Age: 20

Party Affiliation: Republican

Lives in: Rogers Park

A volunteer for U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s (R-Ill.) campaign, Amber Loveshe is passionate about the field work she does, which includes attending parades, festivals and events to pass out literature and stickers supporting him.

“I never want to take for granted the fact that our country allows us to elect our politicians. As a young Millennial, I believe it is extremely important to make your voice heard,” Loveshe said. “By getting involved in campaigning, I feel that I am making a difference by putting my efforts into candidates that I feel best represent the needs of our state.”

Loveshe got her start in electoral politics during her freshman year at Loyola University Chicago after seeing a flier advertising an internship on Bruce Rauner’s gubernatorial campaign. Her interest in politics had grown since high school, and she believed volunteering was one of the best ways to stay informed for Election Day.

“After my first week of phone banking constituents, I realized how much I loved it and have been volunteering ever since,” she said.

With hopes of one day becoming a campaign manager, Loveshe has used her volunteering experience to learn all she can about the work that goes into campaigning and how to overcome backlash for her political viewpoints and support.

“Living in a deep blue [largely Democratic] state like Illinois, a lot of people are usually shocked I volunteer for the Republican Party and Republican candidates,” she said. “Many people my age do not hold conservative values, especially on college campuses like mine.

“I hold my head high and remember that I am working for someone who is willing to stand up for what’s best for his constituents.”

Names: Lindsey Goeders, Joe Carlasare

Ages: 33, 30

Party Affiliations: Republican, Democrat

Lives in: South Loop and Joliet, respectively

Participating in community affairs has always been important to Lindsey Goeders. So when she moved to Chicago five years ago, she wanted to feel part of the community, and one way she felt to do that was to get involved in local political organizations.

Goeders volunteered for Bruce Rauner’s gubernatorial campaign in 2014 and for Jillian Bernas’s campaign for election to the Schaumburg Township District Library Board in 2015.

She is presently managing several aspects of her boyfriend Joe Carlasare’s campaign for local office, including fundraising, event planning, advertising, volunteer outreach and more. You’d think it would be a house divided, with Goeders being a Republican and Carlasare a Democrat, but Goeders says that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“One of the things that brought us together was our interest in community involvement and politics,” Goeders said. “Our political differences are one of the best things about us as a couple, in my opinion. It makes us strong and more understanding of others.”

She serves as vice president of the Chicago Young Republicans, which boasts a membership of 200 people at any given time and often deploys members to volunteer on Republican Party campaigns that are already off and running.

“We get out and canvass, knock on doors, make phone calls, walk in parades, sit at booths at street fests, hand out literature at events and a slew of other things,” Goeders said.

She said people are sometimes curious to ask her about what it’s like being a Republican in Chicago, and she’s open to having educated, well-informed discussions with people of opposite party affiliations.

“As you can imagine, I’ve met people from all over the political spectrum, and 99 percent of them are kind, welcoming, open-minded people who can appreciate the perspectives of people who may not share the same viewpoint,” Goeders said. “And of course there are people who are resistant to accepting people who think different. But I think they are the ones missing out.”

Goeders’ motivation behind her activism is to invoke change by being active in local and state government and to help push forward policy that could benefit everyone, not just the people who share her party views.

“One of the biggest issues I have is with the partisan line that divides our leadership, from local and state to national levels. It’s so counterproductive,” she said. “Having many schools of thought represented at the table is a good thing, and the individuals at the table could benefit by working together.

“I don’t think people are all that different—but the way we think is different. At the end of the day we all need and want the same things.”

During the day, Carlasare works as an attorney, but on nights and weekends he works nonstop on his own campaign. He’s a candidate for the Will County Board, hoping to represent a district that has approximately 50,000 people in it and nearly 27,000 registered voters.

“It’s a very big district, and I’m just working my butt off trying to bring it home and win,” Carlasare said.

With the help of family, friends and Goeders, Carlasare has been campaigning tirelessly, introducing himself to voters, fundraising, attending events and more.

“We’ve knocked on almost 5,000 doors,” Carlasare said. “Whatever free time I have, it’s not really free time because it’s devoted to the campaign. It’s been like that since October of last year when we were getting petitions.”

The politics bug bit Carlasare more than 10 years ago when he interned for U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) while in college and then ended up going on to do volunteer campaign work for Hillary Clinton, U.S. House candidate Scott Harper, now-U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and other candidates. Carlasare said he dreamed of one day throwing his own hat in the ring, and now he has done just that.

“I like the phrase, ‘Democracy is a verb.’ You can’t sit on the sidelines about things you’re passionate about,” Carlasare said. “We cannot function as a society unless we come to the understanding that you have to cast an informed vote, every two or four years, you have to do it—it’s part of your civic responsibility. And I think it’s my role to help spread that message.”

Given the unusual circumstances of this presidential election, Carlasare said the best place to improve our nation is at the grassroots level.

“I think the Millennial generation is a transformative generation,” Carlasare said. “I think it’s continuing to revolutionize many different aspects of our society, and just about now, we’re all getting old enough where we can start to revolutionize our political institutions, where we can make them responsive and fit in a 21st-century world.”

Name: Derek Bagley

Age: 28

Party affiliation: Democrat

Lives in: Wicker Park

Derek Bagley’s entrance into political life started around age 20, when he was a summer intern for the Better Government Association, a government watchdog agency. He gradually worked his way into different facets of politics, working for a Chicago alderman and then on political campaigns. Bagley worked as a finance director for several congressional races, a key role on any campaign.

“Every day you sit down with your candidate for several hours and call through the people that you have amassed from different sources on these call lists,” Bagley said. “When you call them, you tell them that you’re running for office and ask for specific donations and targeted amounts.”

After getting a master’s in interdisciplinary studies from DePaul, Bagley altered his career path.

“I decided to go into nonprofit development work, which is inherently nonpolitical,” Bagley said. “I research donors, I take individual contributions, I make sure that our monthly members are in order and organized, plan fundraisers and different outreach events.

“So the skill set is somewhat similar to that of a campaign finance director. Though, in nonprofit, it’s a little less transactional than a political donor base because you’re selling long-term ideas and not just a campaign and candidates.”

Bagley is an advocate for young Chicagoans and works to inspire his generation to understand the power of its collective voice when it comes to democracy.

“We sort of disconnected ourselves from the government. And I think that Millennials fail to realize, and I see this a lot, is that we are the government,” he said. “We can and should hold all of our elected officials accountable and realize that almost every facet of our lives are touched by local, state and national politics.

“If we vote together, we are one heck of a loud force to be reckoned with, and we need to connect the dots to that.”

HOW TO VOTE in Chicago

You are eligible to vote if you’re at least 18 by the November general election, a U.S. citizen and living in your polling precinct for at least 30 days before the election.

Nov. 3 is the deadline to request to cast your vote by mail, and Oct. 23 is the last day to register online to vote in the General Election. After that, you can register to vote in person and cast your ballot during the same visit at select sites in Chicago until Nov. 7. Check chicagoelections.com for details.

You can register to vote on Election Day, but it can only be done at the polling place assigned to your home address. Make sure to bring two forms of identification, one of which shows your current address. Go here to find out where your polling place is.

@RianneCoale | rcoale@redeyechicago.com