By Alan Alexander, 2026 CLA Intern
Campaigning.
What appears to be an unassuming little act of smiling, parading around, and garnering support is in actuality a behemoth of pain, misery, determination, persistence, and heart. It’s a test of your character. In the words of former LA City Councilmember David Ryu and West Hollywood Vice Mayor Danny Chang, “it makes grown men cry.”
After serving as one of two campaign managers in the 2026 CAUSE Mock Election for the newly incoming Los Angeles County Executive, I can personally attest to the truth of these claims. If I could liken it to anything, I would put it on par with Navy Seal training (even though I’ve never been through Navy Seal training).
On the first day leading up to the Mock Election, I was assigned my teammates: Natalie (Field and Community Engagement Director) , AJ (Field and Community Engagement Director), Jayden Tran(Candidate), Kara (Finance Director), and Kayla (Comms Director). To continue this poorly constructed metaphor of Navy Seal training, they were my platoon or boat crew and the people that I would eventually go through every high and low with.
Day in and day out, our drill sergeant Nancy Yap would throw challenges at us. One day we would be assigned to create a policy platform, and the next communication materials such as our brochure, speech, and candidate statement. And though our journey was not without road blocks, leading to “crashouts” by some members, we soon found our flow through the power of teamwork. Eventually, we weren’t just six people cobbling to move forward anymore. We were Team Tran, and together we could climb any mountain and surpass any challenge.
Right as we reached this point of unified strength, we were faced by our final challenge, our hell week: the AAPI Lead Summit and CAUSE Community Celebration Event. These events, which formed one of the largest API conferences for Asian elected officials in the nation, would be where our mock campaigning and election would be held.
During this period, we we’re pushed to the brink. Even though some of us began to tire after talking with some elected’s–especially in the 90 degree weather–there were always more faces to converse with, more votes to gather, and more people to educate. We realized that campaigning wasn’t a competition against the other candidate. It was a really competition against ourselves, and how effectively we could work in the limited time allotted to us. And so in our hardships, we learned to be there for each other and to be the ones pushing each other forward when some of us lagged behind.
Fast forward to the end, the other candidate, Gabriel-Molina-Kong, ended up being elected. However, instead of drooping down in despair and desolation at our own failure, our team was filled with joy and relief. Because arguably the most important part of this election was not who won, but that we were together as one cohort and that we came out as stronger people.
This sentiment of love, unity, and strength even in the midst of friendly competition was one of the most important lessons I learned from this mock election. In our age of political and social polarization, the societal machine will do its best divide people and pit them against each other based their varied viewpoints. But perhaps real politics is not driven by how well we can argue the truth of our differences, but rather how well we can come together through the strength of our similarities.
So sure there might be Democrats, Republicans, Asians, Mexicans, and Caucasians. But before all that there are humans.
And sure there might be a Team Tran and a Team Molina-Kong. But first and foremost, there is the CAUSE family.
