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Cosmopolitan: The Unlikely Story of the First Asian American Woman State Representative of Oklahoma

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Cyndi MunsonCyndi Munson is a Democrat in a Republican state.

She’s Asian American in a state that is barely 2 percent Asian American and Pacific Islander.

So how did this 30-year-old political newbie  become the first Asian American woman elected to the Oklahoma state legislator?

Munson told her story to Cosmopolitan.

Munson’s passion for woman in leadership is contagious and it caught the attention of the Democratic leadership in her state.

She was born in Monterey, California to a military family. Her parents drilled into her the importance of service to the community. She first learned about state government in high school when she attended Oklahoma Girl’s State.  She became active in voter registration campaigns while attending the University of Central Oklahoma.  She says she joined a sorority to empower women to take leadership positions.  Munson became involved in the Girl Scouts and began tutoring disadvantaged youth. Eventually she would take a staff position with the Scouts.

One day she was speaking to a leadership class when someone in the audience kept raising her hand and asking if she would ever run for office.

“Would you ever run for office?” And I’m like, “No.” She said, “Why not? You’re passionate about girls. You want to make a difference. Why not you?”

Turns out that audience member works for a political consultancy firm that recruits women,  minorities and Democrats to run for state office. Two weeks later, that firm invited her to a meeting. In that meeting was the CEO for Sally’s List, an influential group that recruits woman to run and then train them.

They asked Munson to run. She did in 2014 and as you might expect, she lost. But her passion didn’t end there. Munson set up a Political Action Committee to raise money for woman to run for office. Five months later, something unforeseen happened that would set up a second run for office. This time she would be successful.

You can read about that in Cosmopolitan.

 

 

 

 

 

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