Name: David Fitzsimmons
Hometown: Albertville, Minn.
Position: Chief of staff, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn.
Age: 37
Alma Mater: “The school of hard knocks”
Washington Examiner: What did you do before coming to Washington this year?
Fitzsimmons: Immediately prior to that I was a state representative in Minnesota, covering Wright and Hennepin counties. I also worked in my family’s agricultural business, which consisted of grains and hogs.
Examiner: How did get you involved in politics?
Fitzsimmons: I became, I think, politically aware, my dad was an avid talk radio listener, and so we would listen to that while in the tractor, in the barn where we had the radio going, or in the grain trucks, that was from my early teen years.
In 2008, I went to a precinct caucus for the first time to support Ron Paul, and got elected as a delegate. That was where I went to my county convention, where I first heard [Emmer] speak.
Examiner: How did you get involved with him from that point? In addition to serving as his campaign manager for Congress in 2014, you served as his campaign manager for governor in 2010, though he ultimately lost that one by 8,000 votes.
Fitzsimmons: I just really liked how he spoke at that convention. I went up and talked to him afterwards, ended up getting together with him later, and helping him on his campaign for the state house.
In 2009, then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he wasn’t going to seek another term, so Tom called me to talk about who should run. He ran through a bunch of people, and I just kind of picked them apart. And then he’s like, well, shoot, who should do it. I said well, you should. He told me I was crazy, I think with a few expletives.
So we got off the phone. In the next hour or so, I decided to show him I was serious, so I drove over to his house about 25 minutes away from me, and had a check written out for $500, which was the max for an off-year gubernatorial campaign. I gave him the check and told him I would help get his campaign started, so then he said well, we should talk about this more.
We had dinner and talked about it, kept talking about for the next week or so, and then formulated plans to get started.
Examiner: Did you have a favorite between the two campaigns?
Fitzsimmons: They were really so completely different. In the gubernatorial campaign, the entire time, up until that last moment, we were behind. So there was this constant, wake up every day knowing you needed to make progress and close the gap, knowing you needed to get closer, even it out and get ahead.
In a lot of ways, because of the way we got out front on the congressional campaign, built a position from where we were at on a lot of things, and then obviously the difference between the composition of the district, the state at large, it was the complete opposite. It was really, every day, how do you solidify your position so that you don’t lose, and no one else can take you out.
It was much more of this defensive campaign versus an offensive campaign. I think it was interesting, kind of feeling like, in a lot of ways, very polar opposite because of the different circumstances.
Examiner: What do you do on a daily basis?
Fitzsimmons: It’s overseeing everything, making sure you’re keeping an eye on what’s going on with requests we’re getting, interviews, things like that, what bills we’re going to sign on, letters we’re going to sign on, scheduling requests we’re going to take, different meetings we’re trying to make. And then trying to do the reactive things as well as trying to come up with strategies of bigger things we want to proactively be involved with and how we drive those.
Examiner: What frustrations have you experienced in the job?
Fitzsimmons: I think some of the slowness. Or maybe sometimes it feels like it’s slow, or you’re not really sure what’s going on, and then all of a sudden everything moves fast and it’s kind of over and it’s passing you by.
So it’s struggling to feel like you can feel stay [have] some kind of knowledge of the situation if not control the situation.
And then, sometimes, managing or dealing with other people’s frustration. You kind of feel the frustration, but then you need to deal with maybe the member being frustrated, staff sometimes, your constituency, sometimes wants you to control much more than you can control. So I think that can get frustrating.
Examiner: What’s been the most interesting part of your experience in Washington?
Fitzsimmons: I think some of it is in trying to find your way. Most people have spent their whole career there, a lot of years there. So you’re trying to do well and make your way in a place that you didn’t set out to be in, when you don’t have that background.
Examiner: What do you do outside of work?
Fitzsimmons: I love to travel, especially with my son. He’s 18 years old and leaving for the Army this summer, so I try to get as much time with him as I can. We’ve gone all around the U.S. and to over 25 other countries. We were just in Machu Picchu, Peru, over Thanksgiving.
