How the USG Elections Went National
By Paul Samaha ‘17
A few months ago, I was sitting in Nature’s Brew café studying. I saw that the Undergraduate Student Vice President Rini Sampath was calling me, and I could only think two things: this is either something really good, or terribly bad. Thankfully, it was the former. Rini Sampath explained to me on the phone that she was running for president with Jordan Fowler as her running mate. Rini asked me if I would be interested in being on the Rini Jordan “core 5” team and help them with the PR for their campaign. As someone who looks up to both Rini and Jordan with immense respect, I was so stunned and honored that I screamed “YES!” before Rini could even finish her question.
From the get go, I realized the importance of this election and the Rini Jordan campaign. Months before I set up the “Vote Rini Jordan” Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, I knew there was more behind this election than the annual undergraduate elections fanfare. There was a story behind this campaign that transcends beyond the zip code of 90007, there was history to be made; for the first time in USC (and conjointly, PAC-12) history, two females were running together for executive office.
After weeks of team meetings where we created strategic plans for the campaign rollout, midnight struck on Wednesday, January 21. The Rini Jordan campaign was announced and quickly took over USC students’ timelines as supporters began to change their profile pictures to the Rini Jordan logo. Rini told me her goal was to hit 500 likes in seven days, but I told her we could do that in two days. We ended up hitting 500 likes in under 24 hours. It was then when I realized that there was more we could do with this ticket than the usual social media pages that USC students see. I knew that this ticket was a story, and that this story was made for a national headline.
I quickly brainstormed a pitch to send out to a select few outlets that I thought would be receptive to the story of two females making history on a college campus. The first two outlets that came to mind was the Los Angeles Times, due to its locality, and The Huffington Post, because of their dedication to covering stories regarding social change. I then targeted writers at these outlets who I believed would be interested in picking up the story. The morning after I sent Jason Song (a writer at the LA Times) the pitch, he responded and we coordinated interviews for the candidates as well as scheduled for him to come to one of the presidential debates.
Fast forward to the week of elections. On Tuesday, the first day the polls opened, the LA Times article was published. Success. Three days later, the Huffington Post picked up the article based off the Times story. Double success. There are still a few days left until the results are announced, but Team Rini Jordan has every right to celebrate– we gave the campaign our all, and we made history while doing so. No matter who wins, this election is not the end for Rini, Jordan or me. I want to work with these women for as long as they allow me to do so. Adam Parkhomenko, the Executive Director of the “Ready for Hillary” campaign, calls himself a full-time glass ceiling breaker. One day I hope to be able to say the same. But for now, I’ll take the title as part-time.
