Tonia Bui

Tonia Bui is currently the managing director and founder of PWP Strategies – a political communications firm dedicated to amplifying Democratic agendas among diverse audiences. She specializes in campaign management and voter outreach to underrepresented communities, including Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders (AAPI).

Tonia is a seasoned political operative and communications strategist – with nearly 20 years of experience. Shortly after her first field operation for Washington state’s 8th Congressional District, Tonia launched her political career serving the U.S House Democratic Caucus under the leadership of then Vice Chair Xavier Becerra. She played a critical role in steering, advising, and strategizing outreach tactics for Democratic members of Congress to reach Asian-American, African-American, and Latino constituents. Since her tenure on Capitol Hill, Tonia has leveraged her strategic communications and outreach skills to lead political campaigns and advocacy initiatives at the state and county levels.

Most recently, Tonia managed the Julie Yang for Board of Education (District 3) campaign, which won 64 percent of the votes during the 2022 Maryland elections. She has also led communications efforts for the Hoan Dang for Montgomery County Council (At-Large) and Hung Nguyen for Delegate (VA-67) campaigns. For both campaigns, Tonia played a pivotal role in building a robust outreach plan that utilized a combination of media engagement, grassroots mobilization, and multilingual tactics to build voter and donor bases.

Currently, Tonia leads efforts to increase the political and civic engagement of Asian Pacific Americans at the local, state, and federal levels. She is the co-host of The Blue Dumpling Podcast – a program aimed at building the political progress of AAPIs in Maryland. She is also the co-founder of AAMOVE (Asian Americans Mobilize, Organize, Vote, and Engage), a board member of the Asian American Political Alliance in Montgomery County, Maryland, and serves on the Maryland Democratic Party Asian American and Pacific Islanders Diversity Leadership Council.

Tonia was previously appointed by County Executive Marc Elrich to the Montgomery County Commission for Women (2018 – 2022). She served as the 2 nd Vice Chair of the commission for one executive term.

As an advocate for more women of color to lead political campaigns, Tonia’s commentary has appeared in Gender on The Ballot, Montgomery Community Media, and the Harvard Kennedy School Asian American Policy Review.