I wanted to thank all who supported my candidacy whether it was volunteering, voting, or offering your words of encouragement. Although I came up short this time, I have no regrets and I will forever be blessed with the new relationships I made and experience it gave me. I will forever be grateful to Linda Nguyen and Wylie Chen who convinced me into running. Their confidence in me was both humbling and heartfelt. To my fellow AAPI Caucus endorsees, Gregory Cendana and Laura Shin, for looking out for me and motivating me along the way. I could not have done this without the tremendous help of Joel Greenberg and Jocie Fong who tirelessly and patiently dealt with my sporadic requests to develop my website and logo, allowing my face and name to be branded to the world. Special thanks to my friends who volunteered: Will Reese, Nick Casey, Alison Witkowski, Elyse Peters-Arnold, Bruce Chen, Anne Chiang, Kayla Firriolo, David Spett, Vincent Fang, and to the countless others who voted for me including my colleagues at CAP, my Hillary 08 crews, my sisters at WIN, my Theta Chi brothers, my Jumbo family, my AAA-Fund/AAA-Group friends, my middle school buddies, the DC AAPI community, and those who I met traversing the Wards of Washington, DC who took a chance on me like Louise Wides and others like her. I must highlight the extraordinary help of my boss Jessica O’Connell who was highly supportive of my endeavor, was one of my most important advisors, and gave me the flexibility at work to undertake this endeavor. I also am grateful to my office’s President Neera Tanden who took the time out of her busy schedule to vote for me and spread the word of my candidacy. In addition I want to thank the DC Young Democrats led by their leader Don Isaac, Jr. who showed me some of the ropes of DC politics and introduced me to several future supporters. I also want to thank Romaine Thomas who took me under her wing and to Bill O’Field who patiently answered every one of my endless questions. And I’ll thank Linda again who volunteered for me, advised me, and inspired me to do more and reach higher.
Thanks again for all your support. I look to continue my life by living up to the confidence you all placed in me.
Sincerely,
Nick Lepham
P.S. Tonight belongs to my friend Gregory Cendana who ran in the other district, CD #1. He not only won his district out right but defeated the entire establishment including Councilman Marion Berry, Councilman Jack Evans and others. It was an incredible and inspiring victory and one that DC will be talking about for a long time. Greg, I tip my hat to you.