Run for Congress is seen as a natural progression for MSW grad Gabrielle Campo 
Gabrielle Campo |
Oct. 23, 2008 - Earlier this year, Gabrielle Campo was feeling sick and left work early on a Friday. She went home, took some flu medication and promptly fell asleep.
“I woke up at 6 a.m. on Saturday and realized – nothing has ever been more clear – I was going to run for Congress,” said Campo, who graduated with a MSW degree in 2006 from the Indiana University School of Social Work.
Her realization came only a few days before a special election would be held by the Republican and Democratic parties to choose a candidate to run for the 7th District Congressional seat left vacant by the death of U.S. Congresswoman Julia Carson (D-Indianapolis.)
Campo called some friends thinking someone would tell her it was a crazy idea. They didn’t. Instead, the response was “you should do that,” Campo recalled.
“Why wouldn’t I do it,” Campo realized. “I had the skills and the knowledge of how to do it,” Campo said. While studying on the IUPUI campus, Campo focused on how policy affects people’s lives and learning how to be the director of an organization.
Campo was a political unknown and the Republican Party chose another candidate to oppose Andre Carson, whom the Democrats selected to replace his grandmother. For more information about Carson, go to his web site at http://www.andrecarsonforcongress.com/home .
But when the Republican candidate decided to drop out of the race last summer, Campo’s telephone began to ring. “Was she still interested in running,” was the question callers kept asking. Her answer was yes and she went on to become her party’s candidate.
In essence, Campo said the decision to run for elected office is just a natural progression of where her life was heading.
Campo grew up on Indianapolis’ eastside, went to St. Mary’s College in South Bend, where she majored in political science and theater. During her senior year, she lived and worked in China, where she became interested in adoption issues.
She applied to join the State Department’s Foreign Service and passed the test, but was told she didn’t have enough life experience. She joined Americorps and lived in Immokalee, Fla. where she did a little bit of everything, including working with immigration law office and in an after school program for children.
When Campo worked in Immokalee she would get frustrated because she would look around and there was no economic development going on.
“I knew something was missing,” Campo said. She understood she had to “go upstream to stop the dam from flooding,” rather than wait downstream with buckets to bail-out floodwaters if she was really to make a difference.
She started out at Loyola University, but left there and worked in Chicago for awhile and worked for the Department of Children and Families before coming to IU.
After graduating with her MSW, Campo continued to work at the Indiana Youth Institute (IYI), where she completed an internship. In July she stepped down from her post as manager of data and research to campaign full-time.
“People always say I will do it one day,” she said of getting involved in politics.
“Now is my time to step up because you can affect a policy that will affect a lot of people’s lives.
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