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When Bushra Amawalla first got into politics, she really didn't know what she was doing.
She even had to google how to run for office.
And I did Google search it, but actually nothing came up.
The first thing on the list that I found was understand election law.
So that's what I did.
So then I googled election law and no obscene amount about Illinois finance laws and ways to be compliant with the policy specific to the state of Illinois.
And I found that I was almost putting my efforts, and I guess my eggs into the wrong baskets in the beginning because I literally didn't know where to start.
She wasn't really sure how to fundraise.
She would kind of vaguely ask people, you know, maybe you could think about donating to my campaign.
And that wasn't working.
She didn't even really feel like she deserved the money.
Would I donate $50 to myself?
This is something a lot of first time candidates struggle with.
Bushra also didn't have a voter outreach plan.
She didn't have a vote goal.
She didn't have a campaign manager.
She lost that first race, a campaign for a county commission seat in 2017.
She told me 90% of what she did that first campaign was wrong.
But that is in the distant past now.