Post Election, Harvard’s Clinton Staffers Face Uncertain Future

When John Podesta took the stage early Nov. 9, urging supporters not to lose hope in the waning hours of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, Elizabeth Wiener ’17 had a perfect view of the back of his head.

Wiener, along with roughly 100 other campaign staffers, sat onstage behind Podesta at the Jacob K. Javits Center as he declared the election “too close to call.” Republican nominee Donald Trump officially won the presidency a few hours later, delivering his acceptance speech just after 3 a.m.

“We were sort of looking out at the sea of Clinton supporters,” Wiener recalled. “We were all singing, they played ‘Don’t Stop Believing,’ and we all had our arms around each other.”

“Our spirits still weren’t broken at that point,” she added. “The reality didn’t hit for a while.”

Wiener is one of a handful of Harvard students who took time off from school to work for Clinton’s campaign. In light of Trump’s unexpected victory, Wiener—along with former Clinton staffers Maximilian Frank ’18-’19 and Sarafina J. Chitika ’17-’18—said they have readjusted their plans for the future.

The Harvard undergraduate body overwhelmingly supported Clinton in the election. In a Crimson survey released last month, 87 percent of respondents indicated they would vote for the Democratic presidential nominee. After Trump’s unexpected victory, many on campus said they were shocked and saddened by the election’s conclusion

Chitika, who spent the past semester at Clinton’s Brooklyn campaign headquarters with Wiener, said she wants to take a break from political work for the immediate future. Though she intended to come back to school either way, Chitika said the election results “definitely changed” her post-graduate plans—she no longer wants to work on other campaigns in the next few years.

“I just realized that I don’t think I can be one of those people, especially after the results of this election,” she said. “It was heartbreaking, [and] just so exhausting.”

Chitika said she still aspires to work in politics later in her career.

Wiener, who will graduate from Harvard in May, said she had considered moving to Washington to work in Clinton’s administration next year, if offered a job. But after the election, she said she feels unsure of what job she would take in a “definitely different political landscape.”

Nonetheless, Wiener said she still wants to pursue a career in public service. In the interim, she applied to graduate schools, and is now waiting to hear back.

“In some ways I have this time right now, this next month to really think about where I can best use my talents in the future,” Wiener said. “How I can still help people, specifically if there are communities that potentially will be threatened by a Trump presidency?”

Frank left Harvard last January, midway through his sophomore year, to work as an intern for Clinton’s political team in Brooklyn. In September, he joined her campaign headquarters in Columbus, Ohio as a staff member.

Though Frank said he had a “great time” over the past year, he said he never planned to continue on staff past the election, even before Trump won. Like the others, he will return to campus next semester to resume his studies.

Frank added that many of his campaign colleagues, concerned by Trump’s political agenda, have delayed resuming other jobs in order to help advance “progressive causes.” He said he hopes to do the same—though in a limited capacity, given his academic commitments.

“There are a lot of people... who really want to get involved now and prevent Trump from enacting some of his policies,” he said. “I definitely am looking at working with my coworkers at the campaign to find new ways of organizing people.”

Reflecting on the past year, Wiener said she was glad she worked on Clinton’s campaign, regardless of the result.

“I loved it, I worked with the most incredible people,” she said. “I will never regret it and I will always be proud of it.”

—Staff writer Hannah Natanson can be reached at hannah.natanson@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @hannah_natanson.