From Cutting Chicken to Capitol Hill

It's our annual rite of summer: a conversation with NABPAC's intern from The Fund for American Studies. This year that's Brandon New, a rising junior studying finance at the University of Florida who came to Washington by way of the Florida House of Representatives — and who very nearly missed the whole thing when his reply to Micaela's interview offer landed in a spam folder.Micaela Isler, David Schild, and Adam Belmar talk with Brandon about what a summer inside the PAC community actually teaches you. He spent it in FEC data, in meetings with PAC directors and government relations professionals, and in a TFAS debate where he found himself correcting his classmates on contribution limits and disclosure. He also talks about coming back to a city he first saw at eleven years old on a Capitol tour — this time with a badge — and what that means to a family built by a Vietnamese immigrant mother, a veteran father, and a grandfather who served in World War II.His advice to the next student thinking about it: take the leap. Every opportunity, every coffee chat, every application you don't think you'll get.This is NABPAC's fifth TFAS intern, and every one of them has been on this show. For PAC directors listening: it's a reminder of what an intern brings to your organization — and what you give back to the next generation.