Bachelor of Arts in Political Science
Campaign Manager, Dowd for TexasChief Strategist, Genco Strategies, LLC
Carrollton, TX
What do you do?
Currently, I am the campaign manager for Dowd for Texas, which is a Democratic campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 2022. Since we just launched recently, a lot of my job currently involves organizing the internal structure of the campaign, setting up contracts with vendors & contractors, and setting our overarching strategy & tone of the campaign. Additionally, from my time at the Texas Capitol and previous campaigns, I’m reaching out to other elected officials around Texas to discuss meetings and possible support of our Campaign. My primary concern, daily, is to ensure that we are executing the appropriate actions so that we meet our goals and deadline. (I can expand on this, but I don’t want to get too partisan here).
Love is a strong word – and candidly, one that I wouldn’t associate with campaigning or policy-making! As Dr. Thomas Brunell told me in 2018, “Politics is an avoidance of war”, and that’s something I think about constantly. I don’t know if I love doing this, but what I do know is that I enjoy studying policies and the intersection of policy and politics, particularly in Texas Government; seeing how they intersect and intertwine is something I find fascinating.
Is this what I thought I’d be doing? A stint at the Texas Capitol, then founding my own consulting firm, and running a statewide campaign? I mean – yes – eventually – but not so soon. I have been very blessed to have mentors in the political world who want to ensure that a young Desi like me is afforded the same opportunities they were. I was lucky enough to attend the 2016 Democratic National Convention for the Sanders 2016 Campaign, and from that, things snowballed. Some folks may remember that I ran the UTD College Democrats from 2016 to 2018, and that opened a lot of doors for me. I was lucky enough to join the campaign of Rep. Julie Johnson in Fall of 2018, who was running in my hometown of Carrollton (I was a Road Warrior all through my time at UTD), and after the campaign ended, she hired me to run the District Office in Farmers Branch. Ironically enough, I recall the day I graduated from UTD; I had a morning ceremony, and right when that was done, I had to go to my office desk that afternoon! After running the District Office from January 2019-December 2020 (running it virtually from home during 2020), Rep. Julie Johnson invited me to work for her at the Texas Capitol during the 87th Texas Legislature.
From January to mid-September of 2021, I was a Legislative Aide to Rep. Julie Johnson. In that role, I filed legislation, amendments to legislation, collaborated with other offices and Committees about legislation, worked with local stakeholders and municipalities on subject matters such as property tax reform, public education funding, elections legislation, transportation legislation (that is a favorite subject of mine), and issues of appropriations for the Texas Government / writing the Texas General Appropriations Act. During that time, I also co-founded Genco Strategies, LLC in February as me and my partners felt like we can run campaigns leaner, cleaner, and cheaper than the current status quo currently found in the consultant landscape in Texas.
Recently, I was connected with Mr. Dowd through a mutual colleague of ours. We had lunch, and as they say, the rest is history.
How has your EPPS education informed your work?
Currently, the thing that stuck with me most from EPPS was the classes I took with Dr. Burnell, especially Congress & Public Policy, particularly because a significant section of that class discussed coalition building – not only in a legislative setting, but also in the political setting, elections or otherwise. The lessons I took from that campaign still stick with me to this day. Dr. Vito D’Orazio’s International Conflict & International Relations classes also helped me understand why people can often be led to conflict and we interact. While the class was discussing states and why states take actions that they do, I found that many of the concepts in the class could be extrapolated to political situations, be it between campaigns, movements, or policies.
What value has your EPPS degree and your time in EPPS and at UT Dallas brought to your life and/or your work?
I somewhat touched upon this earlier, but I’ll say this. Simply put, I wouldn’t have the success & career I have today. I learned what it really meant to be “in politics” at UTD; not only just through being in the classroom, but through organizing in and around campus. A big takeaway I found was don’t be afraid to ask the “dumb” questions. There aren’t any. Asking those questions, the difficult questions, the unanswerable ones, can often lead to the right questions – notice I didn’t say the right answers – but put you on the right path to find what it is you’re looking for. You’ll never get anywhere in politics & the public sector without getting out of your comfort level, so to speak.
In terms of literature, Man, the State, and War by Dr. Kenneth Waltz was mandatory reading for Dr. D’Orazio’s International Conflict class back in the day. I found it to be so profound that I actually went out and purchased a first edition copy of it and I usually try to read it twice a year. The findings of Dr. Waltz (and how Dr. D’Orazio applies them in his class) provide crucial context for not just how states act, but how almost all entities, from the singular human to the multinational corporation, act and come into conflict.
As for classmates I remained in contact with – I won’t name them here, they know who they are – but there are many EPPS graduates from the Class of 2019 that I remain close friends with to this day.
What advice would you give current and future EPPS students?
When I started at UT Dallas, I was a Computer Science student – and I immediately knew it wasn’t right for me. I subsequently switched to Political Science and the first class I enrolled in was Constitutional Law with Dr. Anthony Champagne, who has since retired. That was the first time things ‘clicked’ for me, so to speak. Find what ‘clicks’ for you and stick with it, no matter what it is. I would also mention that not all learning, especially in a field like political studies, happens in the classroom. One of the best things you can do as an undergraduate student studying Political Science is to do what I did and attach yourself to a local campaign, of any political persuasion. You will learn so much from it, especially if you work it all the way through Election Day.
Finally, take advantage of the Eugene McDermott Library. You will miss it when you leave UTD.