Title: Legislative correspondent
Age: 23
Hometown: Canton, Ohio
Education: Ohio University
Last job: Call center rep
Phone etiquette philosophy: Be informative and helpful.
Most bizarre incoming call: Pretty much any irate caller.
Professional role model: My parents
Interests outside of work: Cleveland Browns, skiing and golf
Justin Zink might have separation anxiety when fall football season comes around this year. He estimates that he has missed only four Cleveland Browns home games since 1999.
His family has had season tickets for “as long as I can remember,” he says, and what’s more, they’re a part of the team’s infamous Dawg Pound, where rabid fans can be seen biting oversized dog bones and heard barking when the team makes a good play.
Zink credits his dad — a longtime Browns fan — for his loyalty to the Cleveland football team, and also points to him for his interest in government and politics. Zink’s dad has always been involved in politics and was an assistant attorney general in Ohio during the Carter administration. (Zink explains that his dad, a Democrat at the time, became a Republican not long after President Carter left office.)
Zink began his work for Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) as a volunteer for his campaign. When Renacci won the election, Zink jumped at the opportunity to work as a legislative correspondent in the lawmaker’s Washington office.
The bittersweet part of his new job is that it has taken him away from his beloved Browns. He has already resolved to return home for at least one game and to go to Baltimore for the team’s away game there. For the rest of the games, he plans to congregate with other fans at Dupont Circle’s Lucky Bar to cheer on his team.