Since 2021, Constance Chucholowski (MIPA ’14) has served as the chair to the Democrats Abroad chapter in Berlin, Germany, where she currently works as the founder and managing director at a public affairs firm. “The best part of my role at Democrats Abroad Berlin is direct engagement with voters,” she says. “I love supporting people in their voting process.” Chucholowksi says that voter turnout among Americans living abroad is only seven percent globally. “Knowing that small actions, performed by many people, contribute to raising that number is especially rewarding.”
In her role, Chucholowksi frequently speaks with American students studying abroad in Berlin. “It’s wonderful to hear the perspectives of Americans that might be living abroad for the first time and to reflect with them on how this impacts their role as voters,” she says. “Studying and living abroad is an awesome privilege. It is also an experience that undoubtedly changes how we as Americans perceive society, politics, and policy back home.”
Chucholowksi has been interested in politics her entire life, from high school to her time at La Follette. When Chucholowski moved to Germany after receiving her master’s degree, her goal was to stay involved and connected to American politics as best she could. “Getting involved with Democrats Abroad was a priority for me because I had previously been involved in campaigns and wanted to contribute insights and learn more about the community of politically involved folks in Berlin,” she says. Despite her move across the world, Chucholowski still interacts with U.S. politics similarly to the ways she did at home. “The U.S. election means a great deal to non-Americans as well,” she says. “Quite simply, U.S. leadership affects the entire world. The U.S.’s influence on global stability, EU institution decision-making, and something as distant as Germany’s annual budget, is real.”
One challenge that Chucholowksi faces as chair of the Berlin chapter is motivating people to use their voices all of the time, not just in election years, a trend she sees in both the U.S. and abroad. Chucholowksi says that if citizens organize non-stop to have themselves heard, the efficiency of policymaking and politics would improve exponentially.
In her work at the government relations firm Candid Public Affairs, Chucholowski predominantly advises private sector clients. “I always wanted to combine policy and strategy, and have the hot take that there are few to no situations where policy doesn’t demand good strategy,” Chucholowksi says. “Given every individual and every group is driven by interests and policy must serve so many different interests, both making policy and implementing it don’t work without strategy. I love developing those strategies.”
While at UW–Madison and the La Follette School, Chucholowksi was introduced to policy and cost-benefit analysis processes that she uses on a daily basis in her work. “La Follette taught me components, process, and thoroughness, which I can now incorporate in SNAP assessments of a policy challenge or in answering a question about political dynamics and associated interests,” Chucholowksi says. “The La Follette skillset is incredibly transferable and the small class settings are useful for a professional dynamic that more often than not involves small immediate teams.”
Chucholowksi advises students interested in policy and political work to broaden their ideas of ways to get involved. “Abandon the image or belief that political work is Congress, or lobbying, or working for (or as) the Mayor,” she says “Political work is as simple as knocking on a door or making a phone call. There are lots of avenues to get involved in that kind of work—campaigns in Madison are are the first way I got involved.”
– Story by Clare Brogan