ORONO, Maine — The first Asian-American woman elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives will bring practical advice this week and next to the Maine NEW Leadership program at the University of Maine.
Rep. Cyndi Munson, a Democrat, will arrive Thursday and deliver the keynote address Friday evening titled, ”Swimming Upstream: My Experiences in the Oklahoma Legislature.”
Munson, 31, of Oklahoma City also will take part in a discussion about the film “NextStepRun!” by Maine director Pamela Maus, which followed Munson and three other women on the campaign trail.
Twenty-eight undergraduates attending colleges and universities in Maine will participate in this year’s National Education for Women program, designed to encourage women to run for public office. It is offered through the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center and will run Thursday through Tuesday.
“I want to be really honest about what I went through and share the importance of the opportunity to make a difference and the importance of not giving up,” Munson said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
Munson won a special election on Sept. 8, 2015, to replace a representative who had died in office. She was the first Democrat ever elected to the seat and is running for re-election in November.
“I want to spend time sharing my personal experience with [the participants in Maine],” she said. “I want to tell them what I had to do to prove people wrong, that I could be elected, and what it’s like being a young woman in a conservative state and district.”
The majority of the members of the Oklahoma House and Senate are Republicans as are all the state’s elected officials, according to Munson.
“I was a participant in the NEW Leadership program at Oklahoma University when I was in college, and what I really wanted was practical advice,” she said. “Taking part in that program inspired me to consider running for office so I could help people in the community.”
The Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center became the 17th member of a national network of Development Partners in the National Education for Women Leadership program in 2008. It was initiated in 1991 by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.