Former Coral Springs Commission Candidate Noor Fawzy: What I Learned On The Campaign Trail

CORAL SPRINGS, FL – Following Nov. 3’s Coral Springs City Commission election, we asked the former candidates to submit their thoughts on what was on the minds of voters during the campaign trail.
Here’s what Noor Fawzy wrote. Fawzy got 11 percent of the vote in the six-person Seat 3 race, according to unofficial results. 
Four years ago when I was still in law school, I made a promise to myself that I would run to serve on the Coral Springs City Commission in 2020.
I kept that promise to myself, and I’m glad I did. I ran for city commission to provide passion and excellence in leadership to a city that I had called home for 20 years. As many residents have come to learn, I was raised in Coral Springs and have deep roots to this city, and I believed it was important that our city was led by people who were motivated by a desire to improve their city rather than to advance their own personal or career agendas.
Our residents care about our city. They don’t ask for much, like reasonable taxes, clean roads and landscaping, and safe schools. But they want elected officials who are honest, follow through on their promises, and listen to them.
They also care about values, which explains why many residents had asked me about issues outside of my platform for Coral Springs, like abortion, Black Lives Matter, free speech, gun rights, and religion. I gladly welcomed those questions and answered them wholeheartedly, because I wanted to ensure that our residents knew who I was when they went to cast their vote for me at the polls (or by mail).
When I filed to run for elected office at the end of last year, I would have never anticipated that I would be campaigning in the middle of a global pandemic. That was a major challenge for me, who, as a first-time candidate for elected office, had to focus the early months of my campaign on building name recognition through one-on-one contact with residents, which, for safety reasons, was deemed impossible.
Residents planning to run for elected office in the future should prioritize building their name recognition early on by speaking to as many residents as possible, fostering open dialogue and genuine conversations with residents regardless of political affiliation, even if it means you’ll be knocking on many doors.
I also advise that you join a city board or committee and attend commission meetings to gain a better understanding of issues affecting Coral Springs. Finally, you will need to recruit volunteers to call and text residents on your behalf about your campaign and hand out campaign literature at voting sites. You’ll be glad you did.