01.27.26 • Featured
I Never Thought I’d Go Into Politics. Now, I’m On My County Board.
Yeena Yoo’s children were 3 and 6 when her husband turned to her and said, “I think it’s time that we should buy bulletproof backpacks for the children for school.” That moment was when she knew she had to do something about gun violence.
Yeena decided to start volunteering with the Illinois Chapter of Moms Demand Action, a program of the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund. And when she realized there wasn’t a local Moms Demand Action group in her area, she and seven women in her area started a new one in Elmhurst. Together with other volunteers, Yoo urged school board members and other local representatives to start talking about secure gun storage—a simple way to spark conversations about gun safety.
“We kept hitting this wall of no, no, no. And I think that’s when you start realizing, well, we need to elect more people who will actually say yes. And who is that going to be?” Yeena said. “And then, I [thought], if no one else is going to do it, then maybe I should do it.”
The decision to run for office wasn’t one she made easily. Yeena was a self-described “very shy child” who grew into an adult who “still hated public speaking.”
“I never, ever thought I would go into politics,” Yeena said. “Moms Demand Action helped me find my voice.”
Yeena specifically credits tabling with Moms Demand Action at community events as one way she built her confidence. She and fellow volunteers grew used to talking about gun safety and secure storage with strangers who walked up to hear from them, which could be “really uncomfortable” at first. “That, I think, prepared me to start knocking on doors [while campaigning],” Yeena said. “It wasn’t a huge leap.”
Yeena decided to run for a seat on the Elmhurst City Council in 2021. She was juggling her career as a legal aid lawyer, parenting two children, and volunteer work in different spaces. She ran on, among other things, the issue of gun safety, and local community members seemed to be responding well.
And then, she lost her first race.
To do hard things in life, you need people to do them with.
Six months later, she got asked to run for a seat on the Elmhurst County Board. Her first reaction? “No.”
But the Elmhurst Moms Demand Action volunteers, many of whom had become friends, encouraged her to think again. Local officials in Elmhurst didn’t view gun violence as an issue they could address at the city or county levels. Yeena had run her first race with a different message: The city and county levels were exactly the places to do more, especially when action wasn’t happening at the federal level. And Yeena and other Moms Demand Action volunteers still felt it was one that could win.
“It was really the support of those Moms Demand [Action] friends that made the decision [to run again] for me, because there’s no way that you can win a campaign without an entire team of supporters,” Yeena said.
Around the same time, Yeena heard about Demand a Seat, a program of the Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund. Demand a Seat was designed to train grassroots volunteers and gun violence survivors to take the next step in their advocacy, whether that’s running for office or working on campaigns with a purpose.
Yeena applied for and participated in Demand a Seat’s first-ever cohort in Fall 2021. Her campaign manager and communications manager participated in the next cohort, which was instrumental in supporting Yeena in her campaign for the DuPage County Board.
And this time, Yeena won, becoming the first candidate in DuPage County (the second-largest county in Illinois) to bring the issue of gun safety to local office.
One of her first priorities as a DuPage County Board member was to get her school district to start sharing a message about secure firearm storage with parents and guardians. The answer was still a “no.” But this time, Yeena, as a County Board member, went to the regional office of education in DuPage County, which oversaw all school districts. And after coordinating with officials and offices across the county, Yeena succeeded in issuing the message about secure storage to families across the county.
Yeena is one of 56 elected volunteers from Illinois (the largest number of elected volunteers in any state) who have participated in Demand a Seat. They are joined by over 1,000 Moms Demand Action volunteers, survivors of gun violence, and people who care about making a difference who have participated in the program.
Across the country, more than 600 volunteers and counting have been elected to school boards, city councils, state legislatures, and even Congress. Many of them, like Yeena, never thought they would run for office. But each person knew that they had to find a way to make their communities safer.
Demand a Seat is designed for people who care about gun safety and want to take the next step in their advocacy. It is a program built for busy parents, professionals, and community members. Running for office, at any level of the ballot, can be a challenge. But anyone—including you—can do it with the right support.
To do hard things in life, you need people to do them with. When you join Demand a Seat, you join a cohort of people who understand what it’s like to juggle political campaigns and family life. You receive guidance every step of the way about how to build a campaign from the ground up. We’ll walk you through how to find supporters, connect with voters, and even manage a budget. Whether you’re running for school board or Senate, Demand a Seat can help you bring the fight for gun safety to the campaign trail.
“I honestly don’t think that I would be in office if I hadn’t joined Moms Demand Action,” Yeena said. “Somebody much smarter than I once said, ‘If you can see it, you can be it.’ And that’s a big reason why I am in this position and why I ran for office.”
Demanding a Seat Starts with the First Step
- Sign up for an information session (see the links at the top of the form) to learn more about how Demand a Seat can help you bring the fight for gun safety to the campaign trail
- Apply now for the next cohort of Demand a Seat. Applications close 2/20.
Already signed up for an information session or submitted your application? Text the form link to three friends to ask them to join you.