By Jordan Dove, 2025 CLA Intern
Over the last several weeks, I’ve had the privilege of working with seven creative, committed, and collaborative individuals in staging a mock campaign for California State Assembly District 49. In the process, I’ve learned about the community in San Gabriel Valley, how AAPI voters respond to outreach efforts, and the unique policy and communication needs of our AAPI community.
In reflecting on this process, I frequently return to the two focal points of our mock campaign: the endorsement panel and the CAUSE summer soirée.
The endorsement panel was an exercise in detail. We were asked questions about our policy, budget allocation decisions, how we would respond to granular considerations, and why our campaign was characterized as it was. This was an opportunity for all of our contributions to be scrutinized and for each of our voices to be brought forward. For our team, Move with Mani, this was a successful exercise. We were able to approach our assignments with specificity and demonstrate the full depth and breadth of our work. Our thoroughness was visible here, and Mani secured both available endorsements from our panelists.
Conversely, the summer soirée was a game of impressions. I found this much more challenging because we were asked to distill the weeks of effort we poured into this campaign into brief interactions. The votes came down to our candidates’ speeches, the brochures, buttons, fans, and flowers we’d spent long days and late nights compiling, and conversations with attendees lasting just a few minutes at most. This meant we couldn’t highlight everything. We had to carefully select what aspects of our campaign we wanted to put forward. We had to balance substance with style, staying wary of both overwhelming our guests or sacrificing what made our campaign compelling.
In the end, that was a difficult balance to strike. Move with Mani’s campaign conceded the win. Esther’s team had a clear vision and gracefully delivered consistent and convincing messaging. Watching their team’s coherence was an effective demonstration for me in the kind of political messaging that mobilizes our communities—messaging that is story-driven and resonates with the real experiences of the audience.
I am still proud of the work our team put forward, and I feel grateful to have worked with them throughout this process. I feel more empowered to go into advocacy spaces having had this experience, and I am walking away with a greater understanding of how policy can meet the people.