During the second weekend in May, Victory Institute hosted its second candidate & campaign training of 2018 in Long Beach, California. The training brought together Victory’s dynamic training team for yet another tremendous weekend. Long Beach Mayor, Robert Garcia welcomed the participants and emphasized how important Victory’s intensive 4-day training was to his development as a candidate. He urged the attendees to make the best of their weekend and to keep a strong network by supporting one another’s political endeavors. Senator Ricardo Lara also addressed the participants, reiterating how instrumental the next four days would be for all participants.
The attendees spent the weekend exploring the nuts and bolts of what it takes to run a successful campaign. They went through sessions on: how to write a campaign plan, calculating a vote goal, campaign budgeting, fundraising, targeting, messaging, earned media, paid media, field work, voter contact and get out the vote. They participated in trainer led sessions, interactive simulations and group work that forced them to tackle real life campaign scenarios.
As the weekend progressed, participants heard from Los Angeles County, County Assessor, Jeffrey Prang, and Victory Institute President and CEO, Annise Parker; both of whom emphasized the importance of staying on message as an openly LGBTQ candidate. Newly elected Palm Springs City Councilmember, Lisa Middleton then led a lively and engaging Running as an Openly LGBTQ Candidate training session spending time discussing what election season was like for her as an openly transgender candidate. Councilmember Middleton was a 2016 Victory Empowerment Fellow who has participated in Victory’s training the past.
The Long Beach cohort was diverse and dynamic featuring openly LGBTQ future candidates from as far as Memphis, Tennessee and Cape Coral, Florida; it also boasted a high percentage of transgender/gender non-conforming participants, giving us some great individuals to be excited about in the upcoming election cycle.
