When F. Myles Nuzzi (C‘21) first stepped into the GU Politics Living Room his freshman year, he didn’t know that his future coworker, Audrey Akers Randolph (MPP‘18), was sitting behind the front desk.
Seven years later, Audrey and Myles know each other much better after spending months together as part of Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential campaign. On the campaign, Audrey worked as director of operations and Myles worked as deputy political director.
Explaining their responsibilities, Myles joked, “Basically, Audrey is in charge of all the logistics – and then I have to go to all these places that she picks.”
While they both ended up in Charleston, SC, Audrey and Myles took different paths to get there. Before coming to Georgetown as a graduate student in fall 2016, Audrey graduated from Southern Methodist University with a business degree in 2012. She worked a variety of jobs in the political world – most notably as a personal aide to former First Lady Laura Bush and as operations coordinator for the 2016 Republican National Convention.
Once she got to Georgetown, Audrey served as a graduate associate at a freshly-founded GU Politics, where she assisted staff with marketing, logistics and student engagement. In that time, she also worked as a graduate intern for Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
On the other hand, Myles’s political career started at Georgetown, where he became involved with GU Politics through the Fellows program. In particular, he regularly participated in discussion groups and served on the student strategy teams of two different Fellows – Jonathan Capehart (Spring ‘19) and Guy Benson (Spring ‘21).
In fact, it was during one of Guy Benson’s discussion groups that Myles first met Haley, his future boss, as a special guest.
“I think that’s probably my most memorable experience,” Myles continued, “just the way you get to interact with the people closest to politics.”
While Audrey and Myles both gained valuable experiences and connections from their time at Georgetown, they credit GU Politics with helping them learn how to navigate tough conversations in sensitive political environments.
“GU Politics has done a good job of making it normal to communicate with people who don’t agree with you,” Myles said. “That ability to talk to people on the other side of the political aisle is invaluable.”
Audrey agreed, “Teaching people the concept of ‘agree to disagree’ is crucial, especially in politics.”
After graduating from Georgetown in 2021, Myles took a job working with Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland, where he started as a press assistant before becoming assistant press secretary. In 2022, he transitioned into a job on Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s re-election campaign as deputy press secretary. He ultimately landed on Haley’s campaign by reaching out to one of his former professors at Georgetown, John Lerner, who had already joined Haley’s team.
After joining the campaign, Myles says his most memorable experience was seeing the way Haley interacts with people.
“She interacts with thousands of people, shakes hands, takes thousands of photos. And dads are always pushing their kids to meet her, because Republicans really haven’t had a female candidate before running for president that dads can tell their kids about, especially their little girls… you meet these kids and you’d watch Nikki interact with them and you know they’re looking up to her.”
Audrey’s career advice was simple. “Intern as many places as you can, even if you don’t think it’s what you want to be doing. It’s a small world.”
Myles underscored the need for persistence and hard work, saying, “You have to literally be willing to do anything and work harder than anyone else.”
They both highlighted the importance of building relationships and seizing opportunities.
“Our campaign manager and Nikki have been sitting down with every member of the team asking, ‘What do you want to do? Where do you want to live?’ And each of those meetings have resulted in three or four texts or phone calls saying, ‘Hey, I have someone for you.”
She advised students to attend social gatherings with their coworkers, even if they don’t always feel like it, and to not be afraid to ask someone to be their mentor.
As Myles puts it, “This industry is about making friends. If you’re friends with people, it’s not networking.”