By Joanna Yeh, 2025 CLA Intern
Take notes because I’m so excited for you to conduct your campaign AND I think it’s best to learn from example. From the endorsement panel and soirée to the abundance of coalitions and the get out the vote process, I found the Soirée was a culmination of many experiences and an excellent space to connect with some of the most prominent folks in the local AANHPI community. Given the CLA’s time constraints and the priority to allow for extensive creative licensing, I think many of us felt free to pursue the different avenues of campaigning. At the same time, however, my list of suggestions and accounts of my experiences, could hopefully provide an example for you as you navigate your campaign.
As you start out, see if you can speak to the district’s folks. For example, Esther’s team conducted hours of interviews and Imani’s team gathered data from more than a hundred residents. To this point, however, I also think about our group discussion that spotlighting people’s stories—especially their hardships—is not appropriate and should be taken into the highest consideration. Ultimately, I think that maintaining a goal to better understand the district is a great way to frame the campaign so that real outcomes can come out of a mock scenario.
While preparing for the endorsement panel–the halfway point of the mock campaign–practice interviews help everyone get out jitters. And while I anticipate future teams will still need to prepare without knowledge of the panelists, I think that also presents an opportunity to develop those improvisational skills such as learning to pivot, making intentional pauses, and more.
Consider the extent of an ideal campaign. Already, we get to imagine if there were two viable AANHPI candidates. This year, I liked the idea of an independent candidate because politics are more complex than the binary political party system we currently rely on. I wonder, too, what it could look like if two competing campaigns actually kept in touch, giving updates and comparing notes in order to truly best represent the district. For example, what if our mock campaign teams met once every 2 or 3 weeks to share updates and information about what both found out about the district? What if the district was the priority OVER winning the seat? I hope that in this suspended reality, there can be room to explore even as we continue conversations about the realities of politics.
Ultimately, I think one of the biggest lessons I learned from soirée and mock campaign is to just go for it. We all worried about rules or guidelines when I think part of the point is that campaigns only have so many rules. We can walk up to constituents and choose to develop the relationships. We can choose to ask alumni for advice and interested folks to donate. We can choose to make the competition a healthy relationship that prioritizes the community.
I had a great experience creating this campaign and participating in our soirée, and I hope that this program gets better every year. I hope that any person reading this also realizes what I keep learning which is that there are so many resources available but it is the labor of looking that is the challenge. From creating a campaign to finding a job to making life changing decisions, these lessons I learned here connect far and wide.