Student PAC Targets Campaign Barriers To Entry

Holly Geffs grew up in Greenwich and concluded her political views were out of step with those of her Republican neighbors. Chris Rice grew up in a low-income neighborhood in Texas, where he caught the grassroots politics bug at 15.

Now Yale sophomores, the two have thrown their energies into a twofold mission: to enable low-income college students to get their start in politics by working on U.S. Congressional campaigns; and to help elect Democratic candidates who support progressive causes like a $15 hourly minimum wage and a pathway to citizenship for immigrants.

Geffs and Rice are volunteer officers of Students for a New American Politics (SNAP), a student-run political action committee that since 2004 has paid for low-income college students from across the country to work 8 to 12-week summer internships with Congressional candidates.

Their PAC takes a novel approach to the influence of big money in politics, by seeking to change who can afford to enter political careers in the first place.

“We want to make American politics way more representative of America,” Geffs said.

One of the group’s marquee endorsees was U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

The group has stepped up its efforts this year: It plans to fund 40 internships at up to $2,500 a piece. That’s more than half the total number of interns it has funded since 2004.

Geffs said the PAC’s goal isn’t purely to help win elections. It aims just as much to enable college students who otherwise couldn’t afford to work on campaigns to get their starts in politics —- so that people other than the ​“wealthy elite” can break into the system. Too often, only ​“rich kids” can afford to work for no money over the summer, she noted. (She has a gig working this summer for U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.)

Rice said that as fellowship director he has contacted professors at over 2,500 campuses across the country seeking applicants. Over 300 students have applied.

The group still needs to raise another $20,000 to meet its goal this year. (The group’s website has details.) So far this year the group has endorsed U.S. Congressional candidates Susannah Randolph of Florida and Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire, with more endorsements to come.

Geffs and Rice spoke about SNAP and their own political journeys on WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program. Click on or download the above audio file to listen to the program.