Craig Wilding, the June Activist of the Month, has been instrumental in aiding the SemDems efforts in voter registration and in supporting candidates in the recent elections. Craig serves as the Data Administrator for the Seminole County Democratic Party, and is our resident data expert knowing everything about VoteBuilder and MiniVan. He has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from University of Missouri and a BS in Political Science from the University of Central Florida (UCF). Craig is currently matriculating at UCF for his master’s in Political Science.
Craig moved to Central Florida in 2013 for a new job. He says, “Most of my friends had moved up here from South Florida after the housing market crash in 2008.” He became involved with the SemDems in June 2016, supporting the Hillary Clinton campaign. There were only about 20 SemDems members at the time. Craig indicates, “We’ve come a long way since then, averaging about 200 people per meeting, before the pandemic. We’ve built up a team that has experience which makes it easier for new people to join and become effective.
- Working with the SemDems, he likes the door to door canvasing and phone banking. Craig does the behind the scenes work to map out the turfs and select who to target for the phone banks. Craig believes that everyone can help out in small ways—“whether it is door knocking, writing post cards, fundraising, or putting packets together in the office, there are little things everyone can do to help out.” Craig is a dog lover. He had a greyhound, Mozy, that he dressed up and brought to events to help collect petitions. He says, ”It’s hard to ignore a dog carrying a clipboard.” Unfortunately, Mozy passed away recently. Perhaps this experience will lead others to get their pets involved in our activities. Who doesn’t like to pat a friendly dog?
- Craig participates in most of our SemDems activities and is very dedicated to our causes. SemDems is so appreciative and lucky that he became involved. Brittany Nethers, former SemDems Chair says, “Craig’s dedication is evident in everything he does. He is consistently thinking about prioritization, and he is able to coordinate both big picture items and the smallest details. Craig has organized some of our largest county-wide efforts and was truly vital to this past election cycle. Anyone who has met Craig knows that he is a very hard worker - and he is passionate about the job at hand. He not only gets the job done, but he considers outcomes and strategies for future improvement. And he does that all with a smile. I’ve greatly enjoyed working with Craig these past two years, and I know he would be an asset to any organization or group he wants to be a part of.” (from Linkedin.com 3/22/2019)
Craig with Voter Dog Mozy and Deborah Poulalion