Alumni Spotlight: Colton Dale

Colton Dale graduated from Wayne State University in the summer of 2015 with a B.A. in political science and has since moved on to be a campaign manager for the Iowa Democratic Party.

He's currently managing the campaign of a candidate running for the first time as a state representative in a highly contested and open district in Eastern Iowa.

Colton's job focuses on coordinating all of the important operations to help the candidate he is working with to get elected. Colton's daily activities as a campaign manager include helping the candidate with fundraising, scheduling, event planning and voter/volunteer outreach.

As a campaign manager for a state representative, Colton needs to know a lot about the current political landscape and how legislatures function. As a student at Wayne State, he took many courses on American government that helped him to become a knowledgeable campaign manager.

He especially remembers the Michigan Politics course with Dr. Sarbaugh-Thompson and the Legislative Process course with Dr. Bledsoe as two courses that helped him build the skills he needed to be a campaign manager.

Colton wants students to be aware that jobs in the political realm are very competitive, but he has some great advice for students to help get them started in a career in politics. Colton believes that students preparing to work in politics need to be flexible, have a well-rounded education, and have work or internship experiences during their undergraduate studies. Colton suggests that students combine their major in political science with a minor or second major such as economics, business, or public administration. Colton moved out to Iowa for his job, and he wants students to be aware that they may have to move out of state as well to land a similar position.

While students can get similar positions in Michigan, being flexible enough to move out of state allowed him to find a campaign manager position faster than others. Just as many other alumni have said, Colton also says that experience and connections matter most to landing a job. Colton advises students to take advantage of every interaction, event, internship, and job experience they can before they graduate. He feels that the best way to get a job interview is to have a résumé built on real-world experience and to have a large network of friends and acquaintances in the political field.