How an Independent Unseated California City’s Incumbent Mayor

In a special election on November 5, 2024, Independent candidate Marq Hawkins unseated the incumbent mayor of California City, California. Hawkins won the mayoral election with 43.4% of the vote in a three-way race — earning over twice as many votes as the incumbent mayor, Kelly Kulikoff.

As an Independent empowered by GoodParty.org, Hawkins brings a fresh perspective to California City. GoodParty.org spoke to Hawkins about his victory and how GoodParty.org’s campaign tools contributed to his winning strategy.

Keep reading to learn how Hawkins won without party backing or deep pockets — and how more Independents can do the same.

Launching a Campaign for Mayor of California City

Hawkins decided to run for office after attending city council meetings and becoming more involved in his local community.

“There was a lot of mismanagement, corruption, greed, nepotism, all the other negativisms you can think of,” Hawkins said. “People want to move here, but there are no major chain stores. Coming in with this campaign, I had recognized that people wanted stuff, right? They wanted stores, they wanted the roads fixed, and they wanted kids to have stuff to do. Really, what sparked me to even start going to the council meetings was that my daughter was like, ‘Dad, there's nothing to do out here.’”

Hawkins said he started asking questions at city council meetings and felt unsatisfied with the answers he received.

“Finally, somebody challenged me and said, ‘Look, you're asking all these questions; you keep telling us to do something about it; why don't you do something about it?’” Hawkins said.

Around this time, Hawkins signed up for GoodParty.org and began meeting with political campaign expert Jared Alper. With the help of GoodParty.org’s team, Hawkins decided to run for mayor and began crafting an effective strategy.

Hawkins said that meeting with Alper early on in this journey gave him the confidence to launch a winning campaign.

“I've worked on campaigns before, going even all the way back to the late ‘80s with Jesse Jackson, so I had some understanding, but I was never the guy in the line of fire,” Hawkins said. “The target was always on the other person. I could sidestep the bullet, but taking the bullet was a whole different experience. Those early conversations helped me to look at things in a way that I said, ‘Oh, okay, I can do this.’” 

LEARN MORE: Interested in launching your own Independent campaign? Start learning how today.

Developing a Winning Campaign Strategy

Throughout his campaign, Hawkins used a variety of tactics to reach voters. These included relying on GoodParty.org for SMS texting tools, voter data, and yard signs.

When opponents sent out a negative mailer about his campaign, for example, Hawkins was able to quickly respond with his own mailers and text messages.

“Those text messages, man, those suckers were very, very effective and very powerful. We [sent texts] three times, and we were able to change the narrative,” Hawkins said. “The text messaging tool was very effective in countering a lot of the false narrative that was out there. Tapping in with people, reminding them who you are, and staying front-of-mind was key.”

Hawkins said that door-to-door canvassing and amplifying his message on Facebook were two more essential elements of his campaign strategy.

Hawkins described his canvassing experience as a chance to truly connect with California City’s voters:

“I met some really cool people, really sweet people, really nice people, and I was able to just connect with the community and say, ‘Hey, forget about me running for mayor. What do you want to see the city do? How do you want change to happen? I'm here to listen.’ People resonated with that,” he said.

Facebook groups gave Hawkins’ campaign another important avenue for connecting with voters. Hawkins said he would advise other political candidates to find the channel that works best to reach voters in their specific communities.

“Whoever the candidate is, get to understand the communication methodology of that community,” Hawkins said. “It may not be Facebook groups. It may be Instagram, it may be TikTok, it may be phone calls, or whatever it is.”

LEARN MORE: Explore 10 powerful ways Independent candidates can engage with voters.

Overall, Hawkins said that meeting with experts was GoodParty.org’s most valuable offering for his campaign.

“It helped me to understand better what the scope and sequence of things were, and it helped me to look out for some of the pitfalls. Also, there was just encouragement,” Hawkins said. “Jared was really good at being very encouraging. He was always positive. That helped a lot. I appreciate that, because this is a tough haul, y'all. It's something that is not for the faint of heart.”

GoodParty.org’s Pro support gave Hawkins access to much-needed encouragement throughout the campaign.

“Having that encouragement and having somebody who’s gone through the process, who has helped other people go through the process and understands what you're going through, was really, really effective and amazing,” Hawkins said.

Providing Independent Leadership for California City

In addition to unseating an incumbent mayor, Hawkins helped to prove that Independent candidates can win elections and go on to serve their communities effectively.

“I think running as an Independent, not having an association with any political party per se, was a plus, particularly for a local election like this,” Hawkins said. “People have a tendency in local elections like these not to trust the machine or not to trust the system. We were able to run a really grassroots, for-the-people candidacy, which was very effective.”

Hawkins credited his victory in part to GoodParty.org’s campaign tools and the broad coalition of support his campaign assembled.

“Through just sheer good luck and you all working with us, we managed to pull together a coalition of the willing out of every iteration of the city,” Hawkins said. “We were able to build a coalition of people from all walks of life and to get our message out there.”

Hawkins’ people-powered campaign pulled ahead decisively, earning 1637 votes in total. The other two candidates, Duane Vasquez and incumbent Kelly Kulikoff, received 1357 and 777 votes, respectively.

Hawkins’ victory in California City is just one example of Independent candidates winning competitive elections. Explore more case studies of Independents who have used GoodParty.org’s tools to help win races across the country.