A candidate in Santa Monica ran a successful campaign for city council focusing on increasing housing. The candidate, Jesse Zwick, targeted different voter groups with tailored messages about improving affordability, homelessness, and quality of life. The campaign established core values, identified supporters, and held events to fundraise and spread its pro-housing message. Jesse Zwick was elected to city council, becoming the first pro-housing candidate to win in notoriously anti-development Santa Monica.

1. Michael Weintraub
Director of Finance and Communications
E: michael.r.weintraub@gmail.com
P: 424.332.885

2. How a pro-housing
candidate running for the
first time won a city council
seat in his notoriously anti-
development hometown of
Santa Monica.
YIMBY Candidate in a NIMBY Town

3. ❖ Establishing core values
❖ Formulating our Message
❖ Identifying and Understanding our Voters
❖ Campaign Events and Fundraising
How We Won

4. ❖ Worsening homelessness, public
safety, and traffic
❖ Slow economic recovery from COVID
❖ Rising costs, declining quality of life
❖ Fear that Santa Monica is headed in
the wrong direction
Top Local Issues

5. A Candidate to Meet the Moment
Jesse’s platform was guided by the belief that
we will not solve our homelessness and
climate crises until we change our approach
to housing.
This belief served as a foundation for the
campaign’s identity and communications.

6. Housing
Transportation
“It’s time to live our
values”
“Compassionate,
long-term solutions”
“A city we can be
proud to leave to our
children”
Climate
Homelessness Public Safety
Progressivism Compassion Sustainability Pragmatism Family
Issue
Finding the Message in Our Platform
Theme
Message

7. Core Message
Let’s create a thriving, livable city
we can be proud to leave to our children.

8. At-Large Election: Top 3 Win a Seat
For decades, advocating for
housing in Santa Monica has been
considered political suicide.
But with the top three vote-getters
winning seats, we didn’t have to win
a majority— we just needed to
find the people who agreed with
us, and tell them who we were.
0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000
Caroline Torosis
Jesse Zwick
Lana Negrete
Natalya Zernitskaya
Armen Melkonians
Ellis Raskin
Albin Gielicz
Whitney Bain
Troy Harris
Samantha Mota
Jonathan Mann
Arthur Jeon
Votes
2022 Election Results

9. Young Families/ Professionals
Elder Renters / Rent Burdened
Conservative Homeowners
NIMBY
YIMBY
Liberal Homeowners
High Information Liberals
The People Who Agree With Us

10. Young Families/ Professionals
Elder Renters / Rent Burdened
Conservative Homeowners
NIMBY
YIMBY
Liberal Homeowners
High Information Liberals
Jesse, progressive policy wonk
Jesse is their advocate, and he can
win
• Politically engaged, actively seek to
support candidates who represent the
housing/climate/transportation policy
ecosystem
• More likely to believe “housing is a
human right” or “sprawl is bad for the
climate.”
• Engagement: political organizations,
endorsements, social media. Potential
volunteers, donors, event hosts

11. Young Families/ Professionals
Elder Renters / Rent Burdened
Conservative Homeowners
NIMBY
YIMBY
Liberal Homeowners
Jesse, millennial voice for young
families
High Information Liberals
Worried about rising housing and
childcare costs
•Unsure whether they have a future in
SM; limited options to scale up housing
without moving elsewhere
•No millennial voices on city council. See
themselves in Jesse.
•Long-term time horizon, housing and
climate as collective action issues
•Less of a connection to past leadership

12. Conservative Homeowners
NIMBY
YIMBY
Liberal Homeowners
Jesse, protector of rent control
High Information Liberals
Young Families/ Professionals
Elder Renters/ Rent Burdened
Afraid of being priced out of Santa
Monica-- rent control is life or
death.
•Lean anti-development
•In favor of the pre-2020 liberal
consensus in Santa Monica.
•Connection to past
leadership/institutional endorsements
considered positive
•Outreach: mailers, endorsements
(SMRR), Facebook advertising, print
media

13. Conservative Homeowners
NIMBY
YIMBY
Liberal Homeowners
Jesse, thoughtful son
High Information Liberals
Young Families/ Professionals
Elder Renters / Rent Burdened
They want to live their progressive
values
• Haven’t considered disconnect
between their liberal national politics
and conservative local politics
• The kind of conversation Jesse would
have with his parents
• Lean anti-development, but heart is in
the right place. Persuadable.
• Outreach: Meet and greets, farmers
markets, democratic endorsements,
Facebook advertising

14. Elder Renters / Rent Burdened
NIMBY
YIMBY
Liberal Homeowners
Jesse, Santa Monica native
High Information Liberals
Young Families/ Professionals
Conservative Homeowners
They fear Santa Monica is headed in the
wrong direction
•Nostalgia for the sleepy beach town of the
1950s
•Want competence and fiscal responsibility,
on board with housing policy that “cuts red
tape” and “creates investor certainty”
•Less happy with the pre-2020 liberal
consensus; connection to past leadership
considered negative
•Outreach: mailer, neighborhood council town
halls, Facebook ads

15. The Story of Housing: “We Believe”
Sharing our vision for Santa Monica through the voices of Santa Monica residents.

16. The Story of Housing: “We Believe”

17. Understanding Voters: Mailer to Homeowners
1
2 3
4
5
6
Key Insight: They fear Santa Monica is headed in the wrong direction.

18. Understanding Voters: Mailer to Homeowners
1. Family Emphasis on family and being good
ancestors. As a new father, Jesse’s concern for
Santa Monica’s future was personal.
2. Break from the status quo: we emphasize
“bold new leadership” and “Santa Monica
values,” an anti-growth dog whistle we
reappropriated to mean the values Jesse
learned growing up in Santa Monica:
“compassion, sustainability, and diversity.”
3. Mainstream endorsements: endorsements
from mainstream democratic organizations
1
2 3

19. 4. "Santa Monica is home." Emphasis on
Jesse’s connection to the city, with experience
as both a child and a parent.
5. Empathy: We empathized with the
psychological impact homelessness has on
them, the homeowner.
6. Differentiating Jesse: We highlighted
Jesse’s experience volunteering for a homeless
services organization.
4
6
5
Understanding Voters: Mailer to Homeowners

20. Understanding Voters: Mailer to Renters
Key Insight: Worried about precariousness of life in Santa Monica amid record inflation. Rent control
is life or death.

21. Understanding Voters: Mailer to Renters
1
2
3
Placing ourselves in historical context:
We linked the present political battle
between renters and landlords with the birth
of Santa Monicans for Renters Rights in the
1970s, and highlighted the SMRR
endorsement.
Jesse, protector of rent control: Appealed
to a crucial rent control ballot measure
Connection to past leadership
considered positive: We included more
endorsements from local organizations and
leaders, including leaders on the rent control
board

22. “Pick Zwick for Santa Monica’s Future”
Campaign Button
T-shirt Yard Sign
A rising sun aligned the campaign with Santa Monica’s identity as a beach town and reflected our
optimism for a brighter future.
A volunteer canvassing in campaign swag

23. Campaign Events
1. Event Flyer: sent via email, and were
also printed as postcards for event
hosts to distribute to neighbors.
2. Donation Guide: placed around event
venues with clear instructions to
reduce friction
3. Linktree: made it easy for supporters
to follow us on their preferred social
media platform, volunteer, and donate
4. Unique Act Blue Event Page:
tracked attendees and donations
raised.
1
2
3
4

24. Event Design
When a candidate for Assembly District 51
approached us about doing a joint event, we saw
an opportunity to build a down-ballot slate.
But how to maximize the impact of the event, and
the overlap among our supporters?
Santa Monica
Assembly District 51

25. Event Brief
❖ The candidates had met volunteering for
a homeless services organization
❖ Both candidates had a strong command
of housing policy
❖ Santa Monica had just been redistricted
from a coastal assembly district to one
that cut across Los Angeles.
Santa Monica in “Beach
Cities” District (AD 50)
Santa Monica redrawn
into AD 51
2020 Map 2022 Map:

26. Campaign Events: Event Design
Event Flyer
❖ Niche focus: We focused the event on homelessness, the issue
which leveraged their background, down-ballot synergy, and likely
supporter overlap.
❖ Conversation, not stump speeches: Event oriented around a
conversation about combatting homelessness in the newly redrawn
51st district.
❖ Intellectual Event: We invited a professor of creative action at Otis
College to moderate the conversation. She balanced their energy and
elevated the intellectual credibility of the event
❖ Targeted Event Hosts: We engaged stakeholders in local homeless
and outreach organizations to act as hosts, further helping to reach
supporters aligned with both candidates
1
2
3
4

27. Fundraising Management
Jesse was unknown as a candidate, but
an early fundraising push gave us
credibility as a serious candidate and
muscled us into early conversations
about the race.
This opened a window for us to land key
endorsements from Unite Here, Santa
Monica Democrats, and SMRR.

28. Campaign Ops: Event Prospecting
An Airtable integrating contacts, projects, tasks, endorsements, deadlines,
and volunteer outreach provided a single source of truth

29. Councilmember Zwick
Jesse was sworn in on December 7th, 2022. He’s already begun to
fight for housing, working families, and a more equitable Santa
Monica.