Lobo Spotlight

UNM student Christina Rodriguez was a freshman when she decided to tackle local politics head-on — a task, she said, that most college students pass up.

“People don’t know about what’s going on with women’s rights and health care — we don’t feel that impact yet, some of us still might be living with our parents, we just don’t really get hit with that as much,” she said. “I never really got worried about anything, then I got into politics and I realized that there’s stuff that we should be learning about and talking about more.”
Rodriguez is a student media intern for congressional candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham’s campaign. She said she teamed up with the Grisham campaign because she and Grisham share similar views on women’s issues — they’re both pro-choice and advocates for increased funding for Planned Parenthood.

Rodriguez said that on the first day of her internship, she sat in her car for an extended period of time trying to gather the courage to walk into Grisham’s office.

“I was so nervous just pulling up to their parking lot, I just didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “I didn’t know if this was all people in suits, all serious, or if it was all casual and fun.”

Rodriguez has helped the campaign’s media team film events and press conferences, create fliers, edit footage and transcribe the politicians’ speeches. She said that at times, she has helped the group’s campaign manager, answering phone calls and organizing groups of volunteers.

With elections drawing nearer, Rodriguez said the campaign team has had to cover a wide range of voter opinions.

“We get people who call in — there’s such a wide release of beliefs and expectations that it’s shocking,” she said. “We’ll get one call, ‘How does Michelle feel about animal humane issues?’ and then we’ll get another call about ‘How does she feel about global warming?’ It’s such an information overload, I never expected that.”

Rodriguez said her work with the campaign has introduced her to the world of women’s politics. She was recently brought to an Emerge New Mexico meeting, the state’s Democratic women training program, by Grisham herself.

With women consisting of only about 17 percent of Congress, Rodriguez said the campaign has pushed her to become more involved with politics. She said she helped the campaign create a “Women for Michelle” video, a short film featuring the candidate’s daughters, which Rodriguez said helped shed a new light on politics because it showed Grisham as more than just a congressional candidate.

“I’ve found that politics is really emotional, every person has something that happened to them, something that drives that person to believe what they believe,” she said. “Getting to work for the video, that was a much more intimate look into politics than just the facts.”

The “Lobo Spotlight” series showcases current and former Lobo faculty, staff and students who do remarkable things. If you think you or someone you know deserves to be in the spotlight, send an email to news@dailylobo.com.