78 students campaign for prom superlatives, using various ways to convince students to vote in their favor
Barbie posters line the walls. Heads are adorned with tiaras. Hair brushes are shared. While these images might remind us of a young girl’s sleepover, they actually describe the campus during prom superlative campaign season.
A total of 78 students campaigned in 17 different categories for 2024 Prom superlatives. The Prom court elections were held May 1st.
Kaitlyn Villanueva ran for Prom Queen with boyfriend Luis Navarrete. She passed out pins, shirts, pens, and more. Villanueva spent more than $100 for merchandise.
“Right now, we’ve spent quite a bit of money on posters. We’ve [purchased] pins, pens, and bracelets to pass out. We don’t technically have a budget. We’ve just been trying to find anything we can, but definitely not anything that exceeds a couple hundred dollars. We’ve just had not a small budget but not a huge one either, just moderate. Just trying to get whatever we can to campaign,” Villanueva said.
Villanueva and Navarrete also made posters featuring themselves as Barbie dolls to capitalize on the Barbie trend.
“First we got together and went over poster ideas and we got those posters up on the second day of the campaign. We also ordered custom pins that said ‘Vote for Kaitlyn and Luis’, and we passed those out today, so I already have it all planned out how the week is going to go. We made a poster that we are going to bring to school tomorrow and people are going to be able to take pictures with it. Wednesday, we brought bracelets to pass out, and we also finally bought pins that people can put on their backpacks. We also brought shirts that say vote for us, so that people can see that we’re really dedicated,” Villanueva said.
Many people have dreams that they try to achieve. For Villanueva, her dream was to become Prom Queen.
“I want to run for Prom queen because, honestly, it’s been a dream I’ve had since I was young and now I’m in high school and I’ll be able to fulfill that dream and really with my boyfriend now too. Yeah, it’s definitely something that gives me more of a reason to get that crown,” Villanueva said.
Destiny Cuello campaigned for the ‘Best hair’ category. Cuello’s hair care routine includes many steps that might just win her election.
“I wake up and go to the shower. I shampoo and condition my hair. I brush it and then I rinse it out. Then I get out of the shower, and I put in oil, leave-in gel, mousse, and then sometimes, if I have enough time, I’ll finger coil my hair. If not, I’ll just scrunch my hair and let it air dry or diffuse my hair,” Cuello said.
During the campaign, Cuello met new people while passing out hair brushes on the campaign trail.
“I met new people and they are really nice and it was funny because they knew me for my hair, so when I was running for ‘Best Hair’ they were like ‘yeah, I voted for you because of your hair,’” Cuello said.
Mallory Sotelo also campaigned for Prom queen. Sotelo passed out tiaras for her campaign.
“Yes, a lot of people wanted the tiara’s,” Sotelo said.
This year’s campaigns brought out the creative in candidates.