University of Mary Washington - Index

University of Mary Washington - summer08 - Index

graduate, commands a bit more attention in the state
Capitol. As evidence, his father is often referred to as
“Davis’ dad.”
After participating in five successful campaigns for
Republican candidates, Rennolds became the state party’s
Central Virginia political director earlier this year.
Across a swathe of the state stretching from the
Chesapeake Bay to Kentucky, he serves as a liaison between
the Virginia Republican Party’s leadership in Richmond and
those working on the GOP’s behalf at the local level.
“It’s a lot of driving,” said Rennolds, who also spends
a good deal of time on the phone. “Our goal is to make
sure the grassroots people – the people who do the hard
work – are energized and know we’re here and are basically
kept in the loop.”
Though he’d participated in Mary Washington’s College
Republican Club, Rennolds said he never expected to
pursue a career in politics. But then-Sen. Bill Bolling, a
family friend, offered him a job as a field staffer on his 2005
campaign for lieutenant governor. Rennolds saw Bolling
win the Republican primary before
moving on to Ryan McDougle’s
successful effort to capture a seat in
the Virginia state Senate.
Then Rennolds received a call
from Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis’
re-election team, which hired him as
a political director.
“I always compare it to baseball,”
he said. “I felt like I was working my
way through the minors and I got
called to the big leagues.”
Davis died of breast cancer in 2007,
and Rennolds helped her successor,
U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, transition
into the office. Along the way, he
also served as political director for
Richard Stuart’s successful race for
the 28th District state senate seat
and lobbied on behalf of Americans
for Prosperity against pork barrel
spending.
Rennolds said he’s enjoyed
the experience, but not everyone
appreciates his political expertise.
“I go to bars. I’m on airplanes, I’m on trains, and
somebody says, ‘What do you do?’ I say, ‘I work in politics.’
That usually turns into me getting yelled at for an hour,”
he said. “I joke I’m going to start saying I’m a taxidermist
so I don’t get the questions.”
This year, Rennolds is focused on garnering support
for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John
McCain as well as Republican candidates for U.S. House
and Senate seats.
“Every time I worked for an election, you’d hear a
candidate say 50 times, ‘This is the most important election.’
But this really is the most important election,” Rennolds
said. “I’m really glad I’m going to be a part of it.”
His strength, he said, is talking to people and finding
common ground, a skill he honed on UMW’s small campus
with both fellow students and faculty. As it turns out,
he said, his studies in historic preservation helped him
tremendously in his career.
“I think there are a lot of similarities between preservation
and politics. We were always taught to preserve what’s here
from the past for the future. I think this is the greatest
country on earth. I will help find people who believe what
I believe to keep that going,” he said. “In some small way,
I feel I’m a bit of history.” d
“I think there are a lot of similarities between preservation
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As Central Virginia political director for the Republican Party,
historic preservation major Davis Rennolds ’05 (middle) bridges
the gap between the party’s Virginia leadership in Richmond
and its constituents who work on the local level. In this photo,
Rennolds is flanked by Virginia state Delegate Chris Saxman (left)
and Sen. Ryan McDougle (right) after the three spoke on a panel.
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