Mai Vang ‘ready for the challenge’ of being first Hmong woman on Sacramento City Council
Mai Vang is set to become the first Hmong woman and first Asian American woman in recent memory to hold a seat on the Sacramento City Council.
But even with the vast majority of the district’s ballots counted showing she earned 52% of the vote and a concession from opponent Pastor Les Simmons, Vang said she isn’t celebrating yet. Her parents, Vang said, are holding their breath until the race is certified.
“They’re still waiting. They want to be cautious,” Vang laughed. “When I called them (to tell them Simmons conceded), my parents were like, ‘So what does that mean?’ I get my heart and hustle from them. The work ahead, it’s gonna take heart and hustle to fight for this community.”
Vang, 35, is an outgoing Sacramento City Unified School District board member and a former staffer for retiring Councilman Larry Carr. In the hard-fought close race, she ultimately defeated Simmons, a senior pastor at South Sacramento Christian Center and a longtime community activist.
Vang has long roots in the community, having grown up in Meadowview to a low-income family of Hmong refugees, and is the oldest of 16 siblings.
“I know what it’s like to grow up in poverty,” Vang said.
District 8, which she will represent, is one of the city’s most ethnically diverse council districts. It includes the south Sacramento neighborhoods of Meadowview, Parkway, North Laguna Creek and Jacinto Creek.
“It’s important to have leaders that reflect who they serve,” Vang said. “I’m proud of that. I am gonna be unapologetically Hmong and Asian American.”
She’s proud of the way her community showed up during her campaign, Vang said, with Hmong aunts and elders cooking for volunteers and doing outreach, including those that didn’t speak English.
Having Asian American representation in local government is important to show residents someone from their community can hold power, influencing government decisions and passing policies, said Dr. Richard Pan, a California state senator.
Pan, D-Sacramento, said he’s glad to see more Southeast Asian and Hmong representation in public office, especially with Sacramento’s significant Hmong population.
But being “the first” is a position that often invites as much scrutiny as celebration, Pan said, especially for women and people of color. In 2015, Pan said he became the first Asian American to represent Sacramento in the state Legislature.
“They can judge your entire community by you. You’re sort of the symbol,” Pan said. “As an elected official, that can be a challenge ... Our flaws can be magnified into being the fault of an entire community. That’s not true at all, but you are often viewed in that light.”
And Vang’s victory shouldn’t be solely defined by her Hmong and Asian identity, Pan emphasized.
“It’s an exciting day for those of us in the API community, but also should be an exciting day for all the people in her district as well,” Pan said. “That community’s voice needs to be heard and she will do that.”
More women on the City Council
When Vang is sworn in Dec. 15, she will become the only Asian American member on the council. She will also bring the number of women on the nine-member council to three, joining Angelique Ashby and Katie Valenzuela, who will replace Steve Hansen to represent the central city and Land Park.
Vang and Valenzuela, 34, will be the youngest members on the council.
“What I’ve heard from the ground is the community is hungry for new leadership and hungry for young leadership,” Vang said. “It’s our generation bearing the brunt from all the devastating policies made by a different generation ... As millennials, as young Sacramentans, we are living through the struggle.”
Carr endorsed Vang partly because of her age, he said.
“I think the biggest impact she will have is bringing a younger perspective,” Carr said.
When she takes office, she said, she wants to lay a foundation for more young leaders of color looking to get into office through offering fellowships, building a pipeline.
“There is an entire community that is hungry for their leadership,” Vang said. “It can feel lonely when you don’t see folks in positions of power that look like you.”
Vang, a progressive Democrat, was endorsed by former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, but unlike Valenzuela, does not describe herself definitively as a Democratic socialist.
Following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, Vang, Valenzuela and Simmons all signed a pledge not to accept law enforcement campaign donations. Unlike Valenzuela, Vang has not said she definitely wants the city to reduce police funding to shift it to other community services, but said she wanted to take a look at the possibility.
First moves in office
Many of the issues Vang wants to tackle are not specific to the AAPI community, she said, such as access to affordable housing, jobs and leadership opportunities for young people. But some of the community’s issues are particularly complex, she said, since they encompass multiple generations, languages and cultures.
“Oftentimes, issues are seen as binary. What’s unique is that we occupy this intersectional space,” Vang said. “I think while the API community has unique challenges like language access and immigration, the API agenda is also racial justice.”
One of the first things Vang plans to do upon taking office is have individual meetings with council members, she said. She doesn’t expect to agree with all of them all the time, but getting to know them and finding common ground will be “key” to getting the minimum five votes to pass policies.
She also plans to assess the city policies already in place to find out what protections for the district’s most vulnerable might be missing, she said, such as affordable housing or access to basic needs. For that, she’ll need a strong team at City Hall, which she’s working on assembling.
“Hard work. That’s what I learned from being the daughter of refugees,” Vang said. “I’m ready for the challenge. I’ve been (ready) since I was a young kid. That’s all I’ve known, is to take care of family and community, and that’s what I’m going to keep doing at City Hall.”
This story was originally published November 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
