Three Reasons Why You Should Consider Running for Office in 2025

All politics is local and it’s never too early to start planning.

The County Election by artist George Caleb Bingham, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Here at the beginning of 2024, you might be wondering why I’m posting a story on running for office in 2025. the most important presidential election is happening right now all of our political energy is being poured into this as well as House and State legislature elections. It doesn’t leave much political energy to put into thinking about what happens after this November.

But you should.

That’s because to run for local office, you need to start planning now. National and State elections provide excellent opportunities for political action. And, to do my number one pieces of advice for political candidates: Make Friends.

The day after the polls close in November 2024, people will be scrambling to prepare for running for office in 2025. Start now, and you’ll have a huge leg up. Wait until after November and you’ll find yourself months behind.

Thomas Jefferson, for all his many faults, was a great thinker who once said, “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people”. Well, actually according to his official website, Monticello.org he didn’t say it but apparently would have if he had the chance.

“All Politics is Local” was supposed to be said by legendary Democrat and Speaker of the House in the late 20th Century, Tip O’Neil, but he didn’t originate it either. Apparently, some guy named Byron Price did in July of 1932.

No Matter. Whoever the originators were, they are both wise thoughts and provide a basic argument as to why you should run for political office in 2025.

Democrats in particular are mistakenly ignoring the fact that you can’t present some complicated solutions for our social challenges to the electorate without educating them. Their proposals are valid answers to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. (Note: it isn’t 42.) And, if they spent more time educating their base and getting them excited about how these concepts affect local issues and elections, voters might actually come out and vote, which could save majorities in the House and Senate in the upcoming election.

Since they aren’t doing it, I’m going to try.

Here are 3 reasons why your candidacy can help save the country.

1. Local elections help voter turnout.

Like Tip O’Neil did or didn’t say, “All politics are local.” And when “casual voters” get excited about a local campaign, they’ll ignore November’s cold and wind and get out to vote. Increased turnout will help elect progressives and Democrats in the mid-term elections thereby saving the House and Senate. The upside of social media is that ordinary people can take back the public discourse and educate people on local issues. It has never been easier … or cheaper to do and (perhaps with the help of an average 10th grader who understands Facebook) you can too.

2. It’s easier than you think to become a candidate.

In New York, anyone who gathers the necessary number of verified voter signatures can do it. Some people view this as an obstacle, but truthfully it ain’t that hard. If you can plan a wedding or a graduation party, you can plan a signature gathering strategy. Most local Democratic Party political committees are in a shambles and starved for candidates to run for office and if you talk to them about it, they will probably welcome you with open arms. Check with your local county Board of Elections office for contact information.

3. If you don’t do it, who will? 

I will tell you who will. Republicans. Conservatives. Old white men who are stuck in the 20th century and who don’t give a damn about issues, are self-interested, and who sneak into office unopposed to push their own agendas. If you don’t run against them, they’ll be elected over and over and over again and run your village, your town, your school board, or your county’s legislature.

And, if you aren’t convinced by these three simple arguments, here’s just one more assignment that should scare you into doing it.

Like to read Horror novels? Or watch scary movies? I’ve got something for you to read that is so devastatingly frightening that it makes a Stephen King book look like a primer for kindergartners.

It’s George Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant and it documents the insidious rise of conservative Republican thought and action over the last 50 years or so which has transformed America into what Lincoln would have termed, a nation divided against itself.

While through the 1960’s Democrats delighted in the forward march of health care for all, voting rights for minorities and a viable social safety net as instituted by the U.S. Government under President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society”, conservatives in this country quietly fought back.

They took over counties, towns, courts, and state legislatures by winning local elections.

Before we knew it, Ronald Raegan and Newt Gingrich bullied their way into a change in American politics that reverberates today in Donald Trump’s dangerous rhetoric and disregard for all things small “d” democratic.

It’s scary stuff.

The book is a clarion call for people everywhere to do something they might never before have considered:

… run for local office!

Yes. You. Young or old. Black, white, or anything in between, you need to start planning how you can throw your hat into the ring and become a candidate.

Black Friday has come and gone with the beginning of the holiday season and now November’s elections become a dim memory to anyone except the people who were candidates. Some won. Some lost. But all who participated by having their name on the ballot have gone through a life-changing experience.

Running for office … mostly all local elections in the first couple of years after a presidential election … is a daunting task for the uninitiated. And yet, going through it gets at the very foundation of our democracy.

“Politics” has become a dirty word and you’ll see that bad politicians are elected by good people who don’t vote. Bad politicians who want you to sit on the sidelines while they win elections and rule with an insidious and dangerous unchallenged hand.

So, plan your work, and work your plan it’s never too early to begin your electoral journey.