Alumnus Shares Experiences on Presidential Campaign

Tripp Wellde ’02 returned to the Hill Feb. 12 to share with students and faculty his experiences working on Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

In a talk in the Werner Centennial Center, Tripp described his longtime interest in politics including his stint as president of the Young Republicans on the Hill and his turn to Democratic politics as a political science major at the University of Richmond. It was during a summer internship with the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign that Tripp heard Barack Obama deliver the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.  “When I heard his speech, I knew I wanted to work for him,” said Tripp.

After graduation from college, Tripp worked on former Virginia Governor Mark Warner’s short-lived presidential exploratory committee. Tripp then applied for a position on the Obama campaign and was offered a job managing 15 precincts in Iowa beginning in February 2007. “I made the decision that this was what I wanted to do and packed up my Jeep and drove to Davenport, Iowa,” recalled Tripp. “My job was to make sure Barack Obama won those precincts.  In 10 months, I learned a lot and talked with many people. We were successful on Jan. 3.”

After Iowa, Tripp’s life on the campaign trail became even more chaotic.  He traveled to Nevada, Minnesota, Ohio and North Carolina, working long days on the primaries. He then returned to Iowa for the general election to run the state operation, finishing there on election night.

“I took a risk and ended up not regretting one single day,” he said. “I strongly suggest working on a presidential campaign. I had a front row seat to history the last few years.”

After the election, Tripp spent seven weeks running the volunteer program for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. “We needed to find 20,000 volunteers and get them to the proper places,” he said. “We gave each volunteer a red hat, and when I saw a sea of red hats on CNN early on the day of the inauguration, I knew we had done a good job.”

Following his presentation, Tripp took questions from the audience and then met with students in AP Comparative Government where they discussed such things as media bias, what it was like to work for Barack Obama and negative campaigning.