The Office of U.S. Senator Alex Padilla offers paid internships in our Washington D.C., and California offices. Our internship program provides undergraduate college students and recent college graduates a front and center opportunity to learn the workings of a Senate office and directly participate in serving the people of California.

We offer three internship tracks through our Washington D.C., office: legislative/operations, scheduling, or press. We also offer an internship program in our California district offices.

Washington D.C.

Legislative/Operations interns’ responsibilities will include conducting research and attending congressional hearings and briefings for legislative staff, logging voicemails, organizing constituent correspondence, answering constituent calls, and working with the operations team.

The Scheduling intern works directly with the Scheduling team to execute the Senator’s daily and long-term schedule. This position requires a team player, someone with a high level of discernment, the ability to take direction well and complete assignments under tight deadlines, excellent organizational skills, and proficiency in MS Office applications (e.g. Word, Excel, Outlook). Additional responsibilities include conducting research, attending congressional hearings and briefings for legislative staff, logging voicemails, organizing constituent correspondence, answering constituent calls, and working with the operations team.

The Press intern’s responsibilities include transcribing various news events, congressional hearings and interviews, compiling daily news clips, conducting research for speechwriting, drafting press releases, organizing and updating media lists, assisting with media monitoring and social media content, and additional tasks to assist the press team. For this role, additional digital skills, especially graphic design/video production, are a huge plus!

California

California district office interns organize and sort incoming mail, assist our state staff with constituent casework, answer constituent calls, draft correspondence, and help plan advance work.

APPLICATION PROCESS 

Please find the application cycle calendar for all Washington, D.C. and California office internships below.

Internship session

Spring 2027

Summer 2027

Fall 2027

Application opens

September 9, 2026

February 1, 2027

June 1, 2027

Application closes

October 9, 2026

March 1, 2027

July 1, 2027

Internship start

January 19, 2027

May 24, 2027

September 7, 2027

Internship end

April 30, 2027

August 6, 2027

December 10, 2027

Please contact our internship coordinators via email at internship_padilla@padilla.senate.gov with any questions.