Alfie Rudnick '16: Crash Course in American Politics

Alumni Profile

Crash Course in American Politics for Alfie Rudnick ’16

by Leslie Bowen

After supporting a roster of losing candidates over the years, Alfie Rudnick ’16 finally had a winner in the Biden- Harris team. During the spring and fall of 2020, he had the unusual experience of being a driver for Vice President Kamala Harris, both during the campaign and after she became vice-president-elect, the youngest person at 18 years old to have the job!

Now he’s headed to George Washington University in DC, where he expects to major in political science after taking a gap year due to the pandemic.

“I have no regrets,” he said, reflecting on his year off after graduating from BB&N in 2020. “Because of the pandemic, I had the opportunity to volunteer for the Biden campaign at a level I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

Despite his youth, Alfie has supported several candidates over the years. In fact, his first memory of being involved in a political campaign was the time his father, Charles Rudnick, a history teacher and Director of Advancement at DCD, ran for state senate and lost.

“I don’t remember much, I was eight or nine years old, but we have pictures of it,” he said.

More recently, he threw his support behind Joe Kennedy for the US Senate and Pete Buttigieg for President.

During spring 2020, he volunteered for Joe Kennedy as part of his senior spring project at BB&N, helping out the campaign a few hours a week in the beginning and eventually ending up working for Kennedy full time after the pandemic derailed any school work planned for the spring semester.

As an official volunteer intern, Alfie became a “political tracker,” which he describes as basically following the activities of the other candidate, calling it one of the “most interesting” things he did for the campaign.

“I got to know a lot of the senior staffers and was able to sit in on their meetings,” he said. “I got to see the inner workings of the campaign and learned how decisions are made, which was really cool.”

Starting in May and continuing through the end of the campaign, Alfie attended events where Ed Markey appeared and would send a nightly report to the deputy campaign manager and senior staffers about the candidate’s activities that day.

“I ranked the clips and noted anything inconsistent from his previous speeches, basically analyzing his remarks for the campaign and flagging anything noteworthy,” he explained.

Following the candidate’s bus tour would mean attending four to five events each day, with the candidate’s speeches varying very little from one other. “Ed Markey is a smart guy, who makes good points, but it was mentally draining doing it over four months,” he remembered. Laughing, he said, “I had to keep reminding myself that I was working for Joe Kennedy.”

Working for Joe Kennedy opened up opportunities for him to get involved in the Biden campaign. His boss, who was Kennedy’s Advance Director, asked him to come along to South Carolina to do advance work for the “Lindsay Must Go” PAC (another of Alfie’s “losing causes” as Lindsay Graham managed to hang on to his Senate seat!). While in South Carolina, he and his boss split their time between the PAC and the Biden-Harris campaign based in Charleston, supporting Kamala Harris whenever she was at events in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

“Advance is a whole other side of politics,” he said. “I consider myself pretty well-informed about politics, but I had no idea about what went into advance work. I’d attend an event and think, ’this is very well- organized,’ and didn’t realize what went into it. The placement of each chair matters, especially now with COVID-19, but even under normal circumstances, where everyone is sitting is incredibly complicated politically.”

The opportunity to be a driver for the Biden-Harris campaign came along during this time. After passing a Secret Service background check, Alfie became one of the few non-police drivers and one of the youngest to have the job, which required no special training or experience. “Are you even old enough to drive?” he remembers a Secret Service agent asking him.

His first assignment was driving to a Kamala Harris campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia. Next, he went in the motorcade that took Jill Biden to a campaign event in Savannah, Georgia.

His final assignment was to drive in the motorcade that took Vice-President- Elect Harris to Columbus, Georgia, to support Democratic candidates in that state’s US Senate runoff election. As the lead car behind the SWAT Team, he was given instructions on how to respond to any potential threats.

“It was so amazing,” he said. “Those are experiences you’re never going to forget.”

Now that he’s on the volunteer list, he may receive a call in the future. “When you drive in the line, you get to know everyone really well, and whenever they have a trip, volunteer drivers are on the list to be contacted,” he explained. “My boss started off as a driver for Hillary in New Hampshire then got on the advance team.”

Until he gets a call to volunteer again, he’s working at Chipotle Mexican Grill and looking forward to living in DC as a student at George Washington University in the center of American political life.

“I’m excited about what comes next, not necessarily for me, but for the country. We’re moving towards a country where politicians actually care.”