By law, current political appointees serving the administration are not permitted to campaign for the sitting president. Knowing that she did not support President Bush in the 1988 primary but wanted to do more for his reelection in 1992, Dr. Esther Lee visited the White House Political Director, Ron Kaufman for advice. She asked him how she could support the President’s reelection - staying in the Dept. or going back to Texas to campaign freely for the President. After the victory of the Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, (Aug 2, 1990 – Feb 28, 1991), President Bush’s approval rate was very high. Thus, Mr. Kaufman replied, “The President has no problem to get reelected. Yet, we need to have a majority GOP House to pass his agenda. Why don’t you go back to Houston to run for Congress?”
After days of praying and consulting family and our church pastor, Dr. Lee accepted the challenge. Within weeks, she resigned from her appointment at the US Dept. of Education and resumed her teaching at University of Houston/Clear Lake (UHCL) for the fall semester, 1991.
She began her campaign activities immediately upon her return by setting up the campaign office in her house. The dinning room converted into volunteers’ working area. She hired the leader of College Young Republicans at UHCL. He was smart and competent to get the campaign organized but was soon terminated for dishonesty with campaign expenses. He was found to use Esther’s funds and spent time for his own congressional campaign in a different district. He later became Congressman Steve Stockman twice but was convicted on 23 felony counts in 2018. Subsequently, he was sentenced to serve ten years in prison, and was ordered to pay $1,014,718.51 in restitution.
After Stockman’s departure with his waste of Esther’s campaign time and resources, Dr. Lee’s campaign was quickly reorganized by a consultant group from Dallas. They hired a campaign manager, a campaign coordinator and a secretary. With a local Chinese merchant’s generosity, the campaign HQ moved to one of his empty offices. Although the campaign was well organized and operated by the “professionals” the price tag was high.
Dr. Lee’s campaign inspired and galvanized many Chinese American volunteers in Houston as well as around the nation. Mrs. Isada Lee of Clear Lake worked nearly as a full-time volunteer while Esther’s dining room was still constantly filled with local tirelessly working volunteers. They prepared mailers and signs. They also delivered and placed yard signs. Later, On the election eve, the main streets in the I-610 loop areas were saturated with Esther’s street signs. Unfortunately, many of them were removed by some people.
The purpose of Dr. Esther Lee’s congressional campaign was not for personal gains or interests but for the Asian Americans as a whole. As a professor with the University of Houston/Clear Lake, she intended to inspire Asian Americans for their political involvement. She used the analogy of ladder climbing to symbolize her efforts as the first giant step to reach the political top regardless of the results of her own race. She shared her messages throughout 14 cities in the USA. Being a newspaper columnist and community activist for years, she was well recognized and supported by the local community leaders with their generous donations to her campaign. On average, each fundraiser received between $10K-$20K.
Although she lost by a narrow margin, her attempt boosted many other Asian Americans’ confidence in their political endeavors. Esther was proud of her “fight” and pleased with the consequences in the years following her campaign. There were only four Asian American congressmen prior to 1993, excluding those in Hawaii, which had its unique political background. Among these four, three were Japanese Americans from CA and one Indian. After 1993, a total of 16 Asian/Pacific American (APA) congresspersons were elected. In addition, currently there are quite a few APA public office holders throughout the US. In the year of 2020, there were 12 Asian/Pacific Americans running for state-wide office in Texas.
In the state of Texas, a Houston immigration lawyer, Gordon Quan, later was elected to the City Council in 1999. Mr. Quan was elected the first Asian-American to serve as an “at large” member of the Houston City Council. In 2002, he was selected as City of Houston Mayor Pro-Tem in 2002. Dr. Martha J. Wong was also elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2002. A more recent article is about one of Dr. Lee’s volunteers who has been active in political grassroots since then. Impact: article: Dawn Lin: politically active in grassroots http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201508/21/WS5a30aa62a3108bc8c672d496.html
From her unsuccessful campaign, Esther learned a number of lessons.
First, she over trusted the professionals and followed their advice without trusting her own judgement and listening to her own instinct. Both of her first campaign manager, Steve Stockman and subsequent consultants took advantage of her well-funded campaign.
Then, the campaign strategies adopted by the consultants, based on an expensive survey against immigration, might have damaged her candidacy greatly. The sentiments of anti-Japanese imports and immigration policy were undoubtedly a bad timing to her race as an Asian immigrant. She was portrayed by her opponent as a Japanese immigrant on TV ads. Her consultants “made” her as a stealth candidate without TV ads only relying on radio ads (not showing her Asian face.). Meanwhile, the consultants used a negative campaign to “define” her opponent with “tons” of mailers. This tactic was truly against her personality and belief. However, she was “allowed” to walk with her volunteers in certain precincts and to continue her fundraising schedule.
In retrospect, Dr. Lee, based on the early absentee votes, concluded that the negative campaign, and stealth candidacy led to her defeat. Obviously, her candidacy was well received initially by voters until her negative mailers bombarded voters. She should have trusted her own instincts. At the end, she regretted that she trusted the consultants completely including the misuse of Esther’s campaign funds.
After days of praying and consulting family and our church pastor, Dr. Lee accepted the challenge. Within weeks, she resigned from her appointment at the US Dept. of Education and resumed her teaching at University of Houston/Clear Lake (UHCL) for the fall semester, 1991.
She began her campaign activities immediately upon her return by setting up the campaign office in her house. The dinning room converted into volunteers’ working area. She hired the leader of College Young Republicans at UHCL. He was smart and competent to get the campaign organized but was soon terminated for dishonesty with campaign expenses. He was found to use Esther’s funds and spent time for his own congressional campaign in a different district. He later became Congressman Steve Stockman twice but was convicted on 23 felony counts in 2018. Subsequently, he was sentenced to serve ten years in prison, and was ordered to pay $1,014,718.51 in restitution.
After Stockman’s departure with his waste of Esther’s campaign time and resources, Dr. Lee’s campaign was quickly reorganized by a consultant group from Dallas. They hired a campaign manager, a campaign coordinator and a secretary. With a local Chinese merchant’s generosity, the campaign HQ moved to one of his empty offices. Although the campaign was well organized and operated by the “professionals” the price tag was high.
Dr. Lee’s campaign inspired and galvanized many Chinese American volunteers in Houston as well as around the nation. Mrs. Isada Lee of Clear Lake worked nearly as a full-time volunteer while Esther’s dining room was still constantly filled with local tirelessly working volunteers. They prepared mailers and signs. They also delivered and placed yard signs. Later, On the election eve, the main streets in the I-610 loop areas were saturated with Esther’s street signs. Unfortunately, many of them were removed by some people.
The purpose of Dr. Esther Lee’s congressional campaign was not for personal gains or interests but for the Asian Americans as a whole. As a professor with the University of Houston/Clear Lake, she intended to inspire Asian Americans for their political involvement. She used the analogy of ladder climbing to symbolize her efforts as the first giant step to reach the political top regardless of the results of her own race. She shared her messages throughout 14 cities in the USA. Being a newspaper columnist and community activist for years, she was well recognized and supported by the local community leaders with their generous donations to her campaign. On average, each fundraiser received between $10K-$20K.
Although she lost by a narrow margin, her attempt boosted many other Asian Americans’ confidence in their political endeavors. Esther was proud of her “fight” and pleased with the consequences in the years following her campaign. There were only four Asian American congressmen prior to 1993, excluding those in Hawaii, which had its unique political background. Among these four, three were Japanese Americans from CA and one Indian. After 1993, a total of 16 Asian/Pacific American (APA) congresspersons were elected. In addition, currently there are quite a few APA public office holders throughout the US. In the year of 2020, there were 12 Asian/Pacific Americans running for state-wide office in Texas.
In the state of Texas, a Houston immigration lawyer, Gordon Quan, later was elected to the City Council in 1999. Mr. Quan was elected the first Asian-American to serve as an “at large” member of the Houston City Council. In 2002, he was selected as City of Houston Mayor Pro-Tem in 2002. Dr. Martha J. Wong was also elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2002. A more recent article is about one of Dr. Lee’s volunteers who has been active in political grassroots since then. Impact: article: Dawn Lin: politically active in grassroots http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201508/21/WS5a30aa62a3108bc8c672d496.html
From her unsuccessful campaign, Esther learned a number of lessons.
First, she over trusted the professionals and followed their advice without trusting her own judgement and listening to her own instinct. Both of her first campaign manager, Steve Stockman and subsequent consultants took advantage of her well-funded campaign.
Then, the campaign strategies adopted by the consultants, based on an expensive survey against immigration, might have damaged her candidacy greatly. The sentiments of anti-Japanese imports and immigration policy were undoubtedly a bad timing to her race as an Asian immigrant. She was portrayed by her opponent as a Japanese immigrant on TV ads. Her consultants “made” her as a stealth candidate without TV ads only relying on radio ads (not showing her Asian face.). Meanwhile, the consultants used a negative campaign to “define” her opponent with “tons” of mailers. This tactic was truly against her personality and belief. However, she was “allowed” to walk with her volunteers in certain precincts and to continue her fundraising schedule.
In retrospect, Dr. Lee, based on the early absentee votes, concluded that the negative campaign, and stealth candidacy led to her defeat. Obviously, her candidacy was well received initially by voters until her negative mailers bombarded voters. She should have trusted her own instincts. At the end, she regretted that she trusted the consultants completely including the misuse of Esther’s campaign funds.