WASHINGTON — Wiley Nickel points toward a yellow and blue “Believe” sign taped above the door of his congressional office. “The question is, what would Ted Lasso do?” he says.

The Apple TV+ series about a stubbornly optimistic soccer coach wrapped up its third and seemingly final season last year, and Nickel is about to say a goodbye of his own, thanks to gerrymandering in North Carolina. But he isn’t ditching the motto yet.

The Democrat sat down with Roll Call this month to talk about the earliest days of his political career, beginning with an internship for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Before long, he was traveling the country as an advance staffer for Al Gore.

“You have just a few days to put on a massive event. … You always get something wrong, there’s never a perfect trip,” says Nickel, who went on to lead advance teams for Barack Obama and others.

He can think of more than one logistical nightmare, including a certain otherworldly scream that may have doomed the presidential hopes of Howard Dean. But “if you do the job right, you can help the campaign get out their message for the day.”

When Nickel ran for office himself, he started out as a state legislator and then surprised some election forecasters by winning a competitive House race in 2022. His first term in Congress will be his last for now. After Republicans in North Carolina redrew the congressional map in their favor, he announced he wouldn’t seek reelection — but also teased a Senate bid in 2026.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

Q: What were some of your first jobs in politics? I know you interned for Feinstein.

A: It was the summer before college, and my job was opening mail. You had some people who were mentally disturbed and would write stuff, and that was a little scary. You saw what then were the far-right extremists, who could be not very nice in their letters.

We thought it was tough then with civility, and it’s obviously gotten much worse. But responding to mail was also a great way to learn about policy issues.

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