At first blush, Reps. Joe Wilson and Dan Kildee don’t seem to have much in common. Wilson, a Republican, represents a mostly rural patch of inland South Carolina, while Democrat Kildee’s district of factory towns runs along the Lake Huron waterfront down to the city of Flint, Michigan.
But their chiefs of staff say the two offices are more alike than not. “A lot of the work we do as chiefs helping to run a congressional office for a member, at the end of the day, isn’t really partisan,” said Mitchell Rivard, Kildee’s chief of staff. “Like, you process flag requests every day, you have businesses calling you to help with the SBA, [you have] tours.”
Jonathan Day, Wilson’s chief of staff, was nodding along as Rivard spoke. Despite their partisan differences, the two are close friends. “Democrat [or] Republican, you kind of hang out with your own party,” said Day. “But then you meet somebody that’s a Democrat — they’re the same person as you. They have a little different philosophy, but they’re working 12 to 16 hours a day like you, they’re working seven days a week, they’re getting all the same emails that you’re getting from outside groups.”
