AJ Swinson: Coalitions and outreach director, House Judiciary Committee

On the surface, AJ Swinson’s job as the coalitions and outreach director for the House Judiciary Committee seems simple: She is the point person to make sure outside allies and those with a stake in the panel’s work understand what the committee is doing and why it is doing it.

But the responsibility to manage those relationships is heightened under Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a towering figure who came up through the Tea Party movement and was the founding chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.

Swinson joked that she is a “cheap alternative” to Jordan, and knows that coalition partners would rather talk to Jordan himself. But her job is to get outside groups to go through her and to take the task of explaining his positions and strategy off the Ohio Republican’s plate.

“I’m making sure people understand where he’s coming from, so that when he goes to an event or something like that, people already know the lay of the land, and they know what he wants, what he doesn’t want,” Swinson said.

In some ways, Swinson says Jordan’s stature in the conservative movement makes her job easier.

“People know where he stands already,” she said. “He’s a consistent conservative and chooses based on what his principles have always been,” she said.

But his national profile also comes with high expectations.

“We had a lot of those moments early on: ‘Why won’t you impeach a judge? Why aren’t people in jail?’” Swinson said. “At the end of the day, you have to work within a conference, so it’s not just about what Jim wants. He’s not King of the House Republicans.”

Plus, Swinson’s professional background before politics helped prepare her for dealing with conflict.

“I was briefly a middle school English teacher, and I think that’s one of the jobs that actually prepared me for this the most,” Swinson said. “There’s no conflict you’re afraid of after teaching middle school. … I’ve had to argue with seventh graders, and they’re just about as irrational as people here sometimes are.”

Swinson remembers that conflict is not personal — and that people are passionate because they care. And fundamentally, her job is to “connect with people to give them access to the Hill and to what’s going on so that they can understand and participate fully.”

“No two days are the same. It’s a lot of fun,” she said.