PAC Profile: Raleigh Rollins

During the 2022 midterm election cycle, Public Affairs Communications students and alumni worked on campaigns and within the administrations of Georgia public officials on both sides of the political aisle. The PAC program equipped this group of students and alumni with practical knowledge and communications skills that prepared them for these fast-paced and important roles. This post is part of a series of pieces profiling a few of these hard-working members of the PAC program.

Raleigh Rollins:

• Fourth-year student majoring in journalism with a minor in political science
• Boards and Appointments Intern in the Office of Governor Brian Kemp (summer 2022)

Rollins said the PAC program changed the way he looked at politics and helped prepare him for his internship. “PAC helps you open your eyes and see that a lot of what politics is—is messaging,” said Rollins.

Before he worked in the Office of Governor Kemp, he helped with Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue’s campaigns for US Senate in 2020. “I wasn’t doing anything administrative, I was more of a foot soldier walking around handing out flyers,” said Rollins. Although these experiences helped spark his interest in political affairs, Rollins knew he wanted to seek opportunities beyond the campaign sector.

As an intern for Kemp’s administration in Georgia’s capitol building, Rollins helped appoint citizens to boards across the state of Georgia. Although Rollins originally wanted to work in the communications department, he said he really enjoyed any time he was able to use his public affairs communications skills within his role as the Boards and Appointments Intern. “I wrote drafts of official press releases whenever people were appointed, and I’d have to look through their information packets and write about their jobs, their careers, their family, and their accomplishments,” said Rollins.

For Rollins, working in Governor Kemp’s office was an amazing experience, and he said he felt like “the people who worked there were truly a great group of people to be with.”

His internship was housed within the legal wing of the Kemp administration, and Rollins said, “While I wasn’t officially a legal intern, it definitely solidified my interest in going to law school.” Rollins hopes to go to law school after graduation, but he has not completely ruled out working in politics or on the communications side of a firm or business in the future.

Writer: Jenna Monnin, Tieger Fellow, Jenna.Monnin@uga.edu