Gaining an inside look at politics

October 22, 2024

Political science major Kevie Lamour knew an internship in Washington, D.C., would be a learning experience. Even so, she was a little surprised how much knowledge she gained. 

“I had a conversation with a friend about [Vice President] Kamala Harris and, in the middle of it, I just stopped myself to think ‘how did I learn all this?’” she recalled. “I realize it was because of all the political conversations we had in the office.”

Despite living in the U.S. for only three years, the Haitian native has an impressive understanding of electoral politics. Her volunteer work with a reproductive rights legislation campaign in Florida and an Albion College-sponsored research project on local voters led in part to Lamour’s recent summer internship with Washington, D.C.-based political consulting firm Winning Connections. The only undergraduate among a cadre of law school student interns, Lamour got an intense look at how Winning Connections educates voters about the “down ballot” legislation that impacts their lives and communities. 

Much of Lamour’s work involved tracking the progress of the dozens of current local and statewide ballot initiatives related to reproductive freedom, gun safety, and other progressive causes. 

“A lot of times people don’t vote because they don’t understand the issues and they don’t think their vote matters,” she explained. “Voting is how we keep officials accountable. If people have information, they’re more likely to vote.”

Lamour admires Winning Connections’ mission and leadership, which includes its vice president Mark Schauer ’84. “Winning Connections is interested in strong ethical goals,” she said. “It’s important to have a third party, like Winning Connections, to guarantee that ordinary people have a say.”

Of course, politics runs on fundraising, and Lamour also enjoyed helping organize events for a U.S. senator, a D.C. councilperson, and a Democrat party state chair. “Fundraisers are really fun and there’s really good food,” she said with a smile. “Meeting political figures is intimidating, but they’re real people you can interact with. I met the president of Planned Parenthood but I had no idea who she was,” Lamour said. “She was really nice and we had a real conversation.” 

And while Lamour values the impact of conversations she had during her internship, she noted that Albion conversations set her up for success. “Sometimes the law students would get on subjects that I had studied in class,” she recalled. “A lot of what we learned in class helped me keep up with what they were thinking about.”

Despite a full load this semester at Albion (she won’t graduate until 2025), Lamour is also working on graduate school applications. She is also – again the only undergraduate intern, working remotely, with the Institute for Democracy and Justice in Haiti.

Still, Lamour looks forward to the day when her political expertise will really come into play. “I’ve actually never voted in my whole life. We haven’t had elections in Haiti for many years and I can’t vote in the U.S.,” she said. “But when the day comes, I’ll be the first one at the polls.”

Kevie Lamour is a political science and economics major with a concentration in the Gerald R. Ford Institute for Leadership in Public Policy and Service and is a member of both the James L. Curtis Institute for Social Change and the Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program. Former vice president for the Black Student Alliance and vice president for the African-Caribbean Student Union, Lamour also served as government affairs and advocacy intern at the Greater Albion Chamber of Commerce, is a Fall 2024 Legal intern at the Institute for Justice and Democracy for Haiti and is an Albion College Global Ambassador. She is the daughter of Samuel Lamour and Alta Blemur Lamour of Cap Haitien.”