Ed Brookover is the campaign manager for Ben Carson, former neurosurgeon and current Republican Presidential candidate. Brookover is also a 1976 graduate of Otterbein who was active in the campus political field and a devoted convert to the political science department.
Before working for Carson’s campaign, Brookover held positions at the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, where he managed the campaigns of the Republican majority. He received a “Pollie” award from the American Association of Political Consultants for his work on Michele Bachmann’s campaign.
When he first arrived at Otterbein, Brookover was initially interested in teaching math and science as his father had told him that it was easier to get a coaching job if you could teach. As he became more involved with the College Republicans and Student Senate, his career interests began to change.
“Otterbein was a leader in the country in involving students in its governance, and it was one of the first colleges to have students sit on the College Board of Trustees,” Brookover said. “And this was the time when they were changing visitation hours, womens' keycards going in and out of dorms. And the student senate was very active in interacting with the leaders of Otterbein to try and resolve those issues.”
His experiences in the College Republicans, which was involved with the activities of the Ohio Republican Party the time, only furthered his change. At one point, “the Ohio College Republicans wanted people to go to a reception at the White House, so I was honored to be able to go do that.”
His mind finally changed when he had a revelation while doing an experiment in an organic chemistry lab.
“I was in an organic chemistry lab, doing an experiment which we’d already predicted the outcome for and I’m thinking ‘you know, if I’m going to teach, I’m not going to go pre-med, there’s got to be a better way to do this’,” Brookover said. He later went to the head of the political science department and changed his major.
The decision to switch would later lead to more opportunities for Brookover to start on his career path. Through the political science department, Brookover was able to work with the Columbus Chamber of Commerce on a study on transportation for COTA.
Brookover links his experiences working in his career to his involvement in campus politics, including the College Republicans and his experience as a student senator.
“Looking back, yeah I was involved in politics, I didn’t think of it that way, but I was. I was involved in campus politics and I worked with Student Senate, the Interfraternity Council, Club (Pi Kappa Phi). So of all these things I think they were the first step in a training ground for a career I could never imagine,” Brookover said.
