Before you run for office

Daniel Hernández Jr. was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. He's a first-generation college student who attended the University of Arizona and while in college, interned for then Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and was the first to administer first aid to her on that day of the tragic attack on her life. Daniel was inspired by Congressman Gifford's commitment to public service, so he decided to run for office and was elected to the local school board, becoming the youngest school board president in the district's history. I do remember that starting in 2017, Daniel then went on to serve at the Arizona State House as one of the youngest members ever elected. As a representative, Daniel co-founded the House LGBT Caucus and worked with both Republicans and Democrats to pass bills to protect survivors of sexual assault. He also worked to secure over $20 million for counselors and social workers to help pass a bipartisan budget to invest in K-12 funding in Arizona. Daniel is currently serving as the Government Affairs Director at Stand for Children in Arizona. This week, we asked Daniel 7 questions about his career path and experiences.

You can listen to the interview with Daniel Hernandez on how to run for office on the How to Win a Campaign podcast. 

Incumbents are hard to beat. Campaigns start out with great intentions, but if you want to beat an incumbent, 94 percent of the time, challengers- (non -incumbents) will fall short. Many folks try, but on average, only 6 percent succeed in their quest to beat incumbents.

At The Campaign Workshop, we will often get calls from folks who are thinking about starting up a political campaign for the first time but don’t know where to begin. To get a sense of where they’re at in the process and learn more about their race, I usually ask the same four questions and then try to give them some suggestions and tips. But too often, candidates won’t have the answers because, in many cases, they just didn’t know the questions.