Finally managed to win the election after seeing some advice on the other thread of how to go about winning the election
As I had put it to my friends, "high speech with low int is winning me the day so far". I generally focused on getting high enough Empathy/Etiquette and then Rhetoric early enough before working too much on the other skills, since being able to talk to people well in a game about forging alliances is never a bad idea.
But yeah, as it turns out, having a competent cabinet really does make everything easier, since it's too time-consuming to get Zorana's own knowledge up to par compared to just hiring someone good. On my first run, I wanted to hold off offering cabinet positions until I met everyone, but then realized that the game is too short for that. I feel like prioritizing getting a good Science and Bureaucracy person as early as possible helps mechanically, though having a Commerce person early ended up making a lot of narrative things easier as well.
I haven't been especially inclined to offer Zorana's hand in marriage to anyone, even her friends. I'm honestly super suspicious of her friends even though they've been nothing but helpful and kind to her, but that's probably just a me issue.
Pet choice absolutely ended up shaping how I approached things, since knowing which moods I can access the easiest had me planning out which skills/electors to go for first. The Hawk is my favorite pet, but the Viper is probably going to be my go-to since I prefer focusing on social stats.