Jessica Hayes: Senior adviser in district, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.)

Jessica Hayes said serving in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District during the chaotic and deadly U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan in August 2021 was a “holy calling.”

Now a senior adviser working in the 9th District for Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), Hayes was working for former Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) when the office started getting calls from panicked people trying to help their loved ones get out of Afghanistan as the U.S. left and the Taliban took over.

The caseload quickly ballooned from constituents to calls from people all over the country and world, desperate to find a U.S. official who could help get family or friends at risk from the Taliban out of the country.

Hayes described herself and other district staff as having “this special calling.”

Far away from Washington, D.C., they don’t always get the same recognition as staff in the Capitol working on policy — but they are in many ways on the front lines of serving constituents.

“We’re there to really work on behalf of so many constituents who are in need. They [district staff] don’t get a lot of praise, they don’t get a lot of pay, they just kind of keep their head down and their hand to the grindstone, and they do this day in and day out.”

Hayes described it as a miracle that she was even in Hice’s office in 2021. A year earlier, he had approached her about running for Congress, which she declined after weighing the effects on her family.

During the fraught, 24/7 work of trying to evacuate people, Hayes realized that if she had decided to run for Congress, she wouldn’t be in the trenches helping Americans and America’s allies. In a letter from the Nazarene Fund, which helped with the evacuations, Hice and his staff were thanked for helping 12,500 people get out of the country, including U.S. citizens and permanent residents, American war allies, persecuted Christians, at-risk women and judges and lawyers.

Hice praised Hayes for her unique ability to earn love and respect among staff, while also challenging them and pushing for excellence.

He said staff members describe her as the type of person who will walk with her arm over your shoulder in encouragement, while also kicking you in the back of the pants as motivation.

“She’s just one of those folks that has a unique capacity to accomplish that,” he said.