Local Politics and the Pandemic | An Interview with Kevin Hayakawa

Kevin Hayakawa is a 27 year old Japanese-American PhD student at UCLA. In November 2020, he was able to successfully run a local campaign in his hometown of Rowland Heights to be elected as a member of the Board of Directors for the Walnut Valley Water District, a position that he is still serving at the time of this interview. In this interview, he discusses the process of running for local office during a pandemic, the effect of COVID-19 on Water Board meetings and duties, and incidents of anti-Asian hate that he experienced during the pandemic. He concludes by encouraging young people to run for government.

Check out the interview transcript here!