Credit: Emily Davids

Senator candidate and former WHS student Alex Rikleen visited the lecture hall on Thursday, Jan. 29, to talk about his campaign, the behind the scenes of a political election and his connections with Wayland. “If I had been able to ask him [Rikleen] and go back 21 years, I think he would have said that this would have been a goal of his, to eventually run for office,” History Department Head and former teacher of Rikleen David Schmirer said.

On Thursday, Jan. 29, U.S. senate candidate for Massachusetts Alex Rikleen spoke to students about the reality of political campaigning and the ups and downs of his personal experience running for senator.

Rikleen was a member of the Wayland High School Class of 2005 and has spent most of his life in Massachusetts. When he was a high school student, he had a particular gravitation towards history classes, specifically Civics, a class formerly taught by current History Department Head David Schmirer.

Designed to give students the tools and understanding needed to make political decisions as citizens, this Civics course explored local and national issues as well as the inner workings of the government. Schmirer found Rikleen to be a memorable student in this class, specifically when it came to enthusiasm and background knowledge

“I do have [a] very distinct memory of him in that class, and part of it was because unlike a lot of students, Alex came in as a very politically astute student who was very interested in the course,” Schmirer said.

Rikleen began his lecture by asking the audience about what time they woke up. He then followed by explaining the campaigning he had done when he was a WHS student to make the school day start later, enforcing the influence young people can have when they put their mind to something.

“I think that [the campaigning] kind of an indication of the type of student that Alex was,” Schmirer said. “When he saw a problem or he saw an issue, he just didn’t sit idly by, but he looked for ways to try to bring about change and make a difference.”

Following this segment, Rikleen introduced himself as a Democratic senate candidate, former teacher and father who doesn’t have an official background in politics, emphasizing that he was a regular citizen like anyone else.

“I’m just a person,” Rikleen said. “I am your normal, generic involved dad.”

Following Rikleen’s background, he explained to the audience what specifically struck his desire to run for senator. He recalled his feelings as a Democrat after the 2024 election, focusing on the concern he felt regarding how his party would respond. That being said, the catalyst for his action wasn’t a result of this uneasiness, but the confirmation of the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Kash Patel.

Rikleen believed that the conspiracy theorist accusations against Patel warranted a significant push back from the Democratic party and was shocked when there was little resistance.

“I viewed this as particularly egregious,” Rikleen said. “That, to me, was the signal that the Democrats’ strategy was not one that I was comfortable with.”

Throughout the lecture, Rikleen talked about his growing worries that Democrats weren’t challenging the seat of power in a significant enough way to bring about change. He criticized the lack of action taken by Democrats to protect the interest of their supporters and marginalized communities during their 2024 election campaign.

“The reason I put Democrat on the sign and on the pin is because, to me, Democrats are supposed to be the party that fights for everybody, whether you’re a tiny group or a big group, whether you vote Democrat or don’t vote Democrat,” Rikleen said. “To me, that’s what we’re supposed to be.”

According to Rikleen, Massachusetts career politicians have not been doing all they can to support these Democratic ideals, which was what encouraged him to step up and run for office. According to Rikleen, this can be a challenging task without an established political background and an experienced campaign team, but he felt that action needed to be taken.

“I correctly judged last spring that no one who had more of an established career was going to be willing to do this,” Rikleen said. “I looked at my wife, and I said, ‘You know what, there’s no gene for Senator, it’s people who raised their hand and say, I want to go for it.’”

The process of becoming a senate candidate was relatively straightforward, according to Rikleen. He told students that the application only required proof of a locked Post Office box (PO box), an official registration with the Federal Campaign Finance Program (FEC) and a signature from a person of any qualification who agrees to be a treasurer for the campaign.

“To become a candidate is so easy, you need three pieces of paper,” Rikleen said. “Becoming a candidate in a convincing way is where it becomes a lot harder.”

After explaining what got him into politics, Rikleen allotted the rest of the block to questions from the audience. During the Q&A, he opened up about the challenges of running for senator without an established background. Rikleen touched on his initial feelings of failure and embarrassment and urged students to push back against these worries when they experience it in their own life.

“The hardest part about jumping into this race was the mental health stuff,” Rikleen said. “Your own personal hesitation is going to be so much more than anything any of your peers is ever going to throw at you.”

Rikleen also spoke about how the campaign had directly altered his homelife, with it being a full time job that takes up the majority of his time. He touched on how the change from primary caregiver of his children to candidate has affected his family.

“We’re eight months in, and we haven’t fully figured out a perfect system, but this is normal human stuff, candidates are just like everybody else,” Rikleen said. “It’s a stressor, but my wife is incredibly supportive, and my kids have been okay with it.”

Rikleen concluded the lecture on this note, emphasizing how important family is to his campaign. While explaining the reason for his prominent, bright pink campaign color, he told the audience a story about his eldest son, who was bullied for liking the color pink.

“I figured since so much of this campaign is about standing up to bullies, what better way to show support for my son and put that message at the forefront than make pink the primary color,” Rikleen said.

Students in attendance left the lecture knowing about Rikleen’s political campaign, what the process of becoming a congressional candidate looks like and how anyone can use their voice to insight political change.

“It [(the lecture)] made me want to learn more about our senators, and I thought it was really cool that he was from Wayland,” junior Mia Farley said.