On the morning of July 25th, 2022, my cohort and I nervously sat down as we tried to comprehend what was going to happen for the day. Our program manager, Steve Lin, went through the agenda for the day and it was a well known fact that our endorsement, as well as fundraiser event was happening that afternoon. Soon after, Godfrey Plata came and gave us a training on the event that was going to happen later.
In this training, it was broken up into two parts: 1). Endorsement and 2). Fundraising. In the endorsement section, we were able to learn what the term meant and the benefits of it. To illustrate, Godfrey defined endorsements as the “expressions of support for a candidate, often intended to inspire other aligned people to support that candidate.” In other words, the candidate would be interviewed by an individual or groups of people from different organizations. If the candidate is able to win over the individual or groups then they would have an endorsement secured.
By winning an endorsement, it would allow the candidate access to certain privileges such as name recognition, voters, volunteers, and many more as the election approaches closer. As much as this sounds great, there are also some challenges.
Some of these are that people tend to have a short amount of time in their schedule available so the candidate needs to be concise and quick on their feet. Likewise, the questionnaires that the candidate needs to fill out before the interview tends to take a long time. Moreover, the candidate should not expect an automatic yes from an individual or group just because they have the same values or backgrounds. To sum up, some takeaways from this section is that building relationships really matter and understanding the feel of the room would help as well.
Moving on, the fundraising section was a bit longer and complex. Basically, the fundraising part is really all about yourself and how to get money to help with your campaign work. When I say ‘yourself’ what I mean is how you are going to present yourself when talking to potential donors. Some of the advice that was given by Godfrey was making sure that your story included a story of self, story of us, and story of now. Story of self is more about who you are as a person, the types of values you carry, and using I statements. On the other hand, story of us is what you have in common with the donor(s). Lastly, story of now is how you are going to bring in that change and the call to action. All of these stories are important in securing that funding from the donor(s).
Ultimately, the training was super helpful as it prepared my cohort and I well for what was going to happen later in the day. Finally, when the time came, my cohort and I were less anxious. We went into a conference room where four people were waiting for us. Their names are Alex Mohajer (President of the Stonewall Democrats), Ebony Murphy Root (Board member, Heart of LA Democrats), Cyndi Otteson (Political Consultant, Former LA City Council Candidate), and Samuel Sukaton (California League of Conservation Voters & DSA-LA). In brief, the endorsement part went really well. The two candidates–Nicole Iwamasa and Nicole Lu–did a fantastic job. They both answered all the questions with confidence and never backed down. As for the fundraising part, all of my cohort members and I helped set up. The event itself went great as well - we were able to fundraise money, network, and enjoy yummy food. Overall, I think the endorsement and fundraiser event is something that I will never forget.
