Name: Emily Benavides
Hometown: Perrysburg, Ohio
Position: Press secretary for Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio
Age: 31
Alma Mater: College of William & Mary
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Washington Examiner: Describe what you do and your responsibilities.
Benavides: As the press secretary, I am an official spokesperson for Sen. Portman, and I try to respond as quickly as possible to media inquiries.
Washington Examiner: What is the focus for you and Sen. Portman’s office these days? Obviously, there’s the new administration, but what are you guys trying to focus on?
Benavides: There’s a lot that can be accomplished in this new Congress, and so we are trying to communicate the senator’s goals, which are most prominently tax reform, regulatory reform and doing more to combat the opioid epidemic.
Washington Examiner: After CARA [Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act] last year …
Benavides: After his signature legislation last year, correct. Right now, a lot of that is getting up and running and it’s being implemented, so there’s a lot around that and making sure that people know about the different grant programs and how they can apply to get the funds that they need to help people, whether it’s with treatment or recovery or the many other aspects of the epidemic.
Washington Examiner: You were on Jeb Bush’s campaign [last year].
Benavides: I was.
Washington Examiner: Talk a little about the transition from campaign life to Capitol Hill life.
Benavides: It’s certainly different, but it’s — in a way, I lucked out in having the perfect transition in going from a presidential campaign to going to working for a senator while, in his official office, but who was up for re-election … It was the best of both worlds and a perfect transition and way to acclimate to what the hill press world is.
Washington Examiner: What’s the toughest part of going from the campaign trail to Capitol Hill? … It’s so different on a campaign, you never know what’s going to happen.
Benavides: Right. But at the same time, you never really know what’s going to happen here.
Washington Examiner: Or was there nothing terribly tough about [the transition]?
Benavides: It wasn’t tough. It was exciting in a different way in that on the campaign, I was in a different state sometimes every day traveling with the candidate, and here it’s exciting in that there’s a different policy objective that I can dig into each day.
Washington Examiner: What’s the biggest difference working for Jeb and then for Rob Portman?
Benavides: They’re actually very similar in that they are very smart, wonky guys with sort of that dry sense of humor. It’s been nice because I’ve gotten to know Rob a lot better than I was able to get to know Jeb, just through all of this … They both speak Spanish. The biggest thing is Rob is from Ohio, and I’m so fiercely proud of my home state and getting to work with somebody who is also so incredibly proud of where we come from makes it so much more special.
Washington Examiner: How different is it trying to communicate under a Republican president than a Democratic president?
Benavides: I think it’s a whole new exciting opportunity for us in that we have a lot that we can accomplish on behalf of, not just Ohio, which is obviously our focus here in this office, but for all Americans in creating jobs.
So much of what the Obama administration did hindered job creation and put in place all of these polices and regulations that held back employers, and so it’s going to be exciting to see what we can do to make more jobs available to all these people and, at the end of the day, delivering results because I really think this last election was a results election. People want results, and that’s what we were brought in to do.
Washington Examiner: Outside of Florida and Ohio, what was your favorite state to go to [on the campaign trail]?
Benavides: I got to go to so many states that I had never been to before. I really loved these SEC [Southeastern Conference] football trips where we went to Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee, and I think those are my favorite because I don’t think I would have ever gotten to walk on the grass at these football stadiums if it weren’t for the campaign, so those were really fun experiences.
Washington Examiner: What is your best Jeb Bush story that you can tell?
Benavides: The thing about Jeb that made traveling on the road with him so special is that sometimes at the end of the day when we finally got to the hotel, and we’d have our takeout from whatever the last event was, we would all sit in the lobby and watch football and get beers or wine from the little lobby fridge because it was a Hilton Garden Inn or one of those chains where you could just go and grab from the fridge, and we would all just sit there and decompress.
I remember doing that in Nevada and random states where we would just — people wouldn’t always approach. Sometimes they would come up and be like, “Oh Jeb, it was so good to see you earlier today,” or something and he was always so nice. He would always take a picture, but he would always come back and keep decompressing with staff.
On the plane back once after one of those football games we all had hamburgers and beers, and he is paleo. So most of the time on the plane as we were traveling, we would have a salad with real chicken on it. This time, we got real burgers and he was so excited — and real beer. I think it was a high point for everybody.
Washington Examiner: You are bilingual.
Benavides: I am.
Washington Examiner: What is the difference dealing with Spanish-speaking media and English-speaking media?
Benavides: What I like about Spanish-language media is that they are persistent in that they’re going to get their answer, and they’re going to follow up with you … They’re a joy to work with just because they know what they’re going to try and do, they know what their story is going to be about, and they will work with you to make sure that they get what they need.
English-speaking press does that, too, but it’s a whole different quality in the Spanish-language press in the way that they interact, and they’re go-getters in a totally different way. I have a great level of respect for any and all Spanish-language reporters I’ve worked with because they’ve been so driven.
Washington Examiner: What do you do in your spare time?
Benavides: I really like getting out of D.C. and feeling fresh air on a hike or at the wineries in Virginia. Those are my favorite things to do on weekends.
