It’s not every day that Pinewood students get the opportunity to get up close and personal with congressional candidates. This year, two juniors had the opportunity to do just that.

    Jack Hollenbeck and Dhruv Gutpa worked on the campaigns for the race for California’s 16th congressional district seat. Hollenbeck worked with Sam Liccardo, former San Jose Mayor, and Gupta worked with Evan Low, an openly gay, Asian American politician who currently serves in the California State Assembly. Liccardo ended up winning the seat.

  While both candidates are Democrats, they disagreed on major topics, such as policing, public safety, and homelessness. The experience had a major impact on the lives of Hollenbeck and Gupta. Hollenbeck worked as a field intern who canvased houses and called potential voters for Liccardo. He chose to work with the Liccardo campaign because he agreed with many of Liccardo’s beliefs.

   “I was inspired to work for Sam because I wanted to get involved in local politics during this eventful election year,” Hollenbeck said.

   Hollenbeck said he accomplished a lot with the campaign, but he knows there is much more to learn as he hopes to gain some more insight into how political campaigns are run.

   Gupta worked for the Low campaign as a leading policy intern. His job focused on behind-the-scenes work, such as summarizing Low’s legislative accomplishments and drafting briefs to pitch to organizations to get them to endorse Low. Gupta said it was a great experience.

   “Once, I wrote a policy brief, and a few weeks later, I saw the organization I was writing it for on Evan’s endorsement page, which felt like a really big achievement,” Gupta said.

   Gupta’s inspiration behind his work with Low began after meeting him at a public event.

   “He is one of the most hardworking and genuine people I know, and it’s clear he values people over politics, which I really respect,” Gupta said. “I really feel like everyone on team Low really bought into the idea that Evan, an underdog, could win, and it is very inspiring. The team feels like a family.”