SNR - Wide Open Race - Mai Vang Profile
As a young adult, Vang helped found Hmong Innovating Politics, a group working to give Hmong-Americans a greater voice in local issues and California's legislative process. The group successfully pushed Sacramento and Fresno to provide Hmong translations of voting ballots.
“We started out with money in a shoebox under someone's bed, and now we're a statewide organization,” she said.
Vang's interest in her heritage extends to the academic world, too, teaching classes on Asian-American studies at both Sacramento State University and UC Davis. But it is Vang's background in elevating neighborhoods that's fueling her campaign. She spent four years working in City Hall as the community affairs director for Carr before being elected in 2016 as a Sacramento City Unified School District trustee.
Vang says both those roles have shown her what the stakes are for South Sacramento and the need for new investments and opportunities.
“There's a lot of work that still needs to be done,” she said. “When you look at student outcomes, two-thirds of the indicators are impacts that are outside of the classroom. So when you talk about stable homes, clean neighborhoods, those are things that impact student learning as well.”