Representation Matters: Pride Parade, Yard Signs, and T-Shirts

 I filed for office on the very last Friday you could file: March 4 with a time stamp of 4:06 pm. Hollie Peterson, from Raise Your Hand Utah, recommended that I get pictures of me filing for office to utilize later. Here's the 4:06 time stamped image for those of you dying to see this gem. (I'll write a post about the day I filed - because that's also the day that I was asked to file...so it all happened in about 6 hours). 

June 5 I was on the verge of signing on with Elevate Strategies as a campaign management team and they asked if I would walk in the Pride Parade with Derek Kitchen. I showed up all by myself wearing the one t-shirt I had printed with my logo that week. I was thrilled that I had a tshirt with my own logo. Look at me go!!

My joy was short-lived.

I showed up to the parade way too early (I thought Trax would be a bit longer of a ride), and was extra tired from finishing the school year just two days prior. I didn't anticipate the loneliness that would overwhelm me to the point of tears by the time I got into my car to drive home hours later. Despite being surrounded by warm faces, I felt invisible. Various candidates brought friends and volunteers (many of whom were wearing matching campaign t-shirts), had yard signs printed that they were waving around and asking others to hold (one candidate asked me to hold their sign...to which I politely declined because I didn't want to cover my own t-shirt), asked others to wear stickers or pins, etc. etc. and there I was without anyone to talk to, with my one campaign t-shirt, feeling invisible and desperately alone. This lonely feeling felt even more poignant at a Pride Parade where we were celebrating diversity and inclusion. 

It should also be noted that as a first time candidate without any connections or background in the political world, I silently watched other people come up to each other and give hugs, discuss various happenings in the Women's Democratic Party or ask about canvassing on the East Bench, etc. I had nothing to offer in this conversations and no one asked me questions longer than 1-2 sentences worth of words. 

Fast forward through most of my campaign and it wasn't until October 4 that I had campaign t-shirts to distribute and October 5 finally brought me yard signs. That is barely 5 weeks with the proper materials for campaigning. My opponent put her signs up in public spaces in mid-August. She got the best location on the fences because she was there first (and I mean first - like before any other political signage was even showing up) - and then she had them literally everywhere. I once counted 13 signs of varying sizes from one vantage point. That feels excessive, but also prepared and visible. I was still invisible and under-prepared.

My campaign team has emphasized that 1) Political signs in public spaces are illegal and 2) Signage is low on the effective scale for turning out voters. I half believed them (although we had many conversations about this bless their patient souls), but more than that, it was about visibility and representation. 

I attended multiple "county coordinated" canvass events where all the candidates present had t-shirts and yard signs except for me. Was I even running? What did I have to offer if there was no physical evidence? My meager door knocking ventures, which included the impossible number of 36,000 unaffiliated voters, left me feeling starkly overwhelmed and unprepared. There's no way I could even begin to knock that many doors. I was averaging 42 doors in 90-120 minutes when I had a partner that would split up with me. 

The moral of the story is that representation and visibility matter. The effect size may be small, but what it will do to your morale as a candidate is worth bumping this task up on your list. I wish I would have printed yard signs and t-shirts early on in my campaign.