Getting it all ready…
As I sit here writing this, it is exactly one week before I officially announce my campaign, and there’s still so much to do. I need to polish up the launch video with the feedback I got from showing the first draft to my friends, as well as make shorts from it for TikTok & Instagram, get a P.O. box so I can fill out all the official forms without doxing my home address, need to fill out all those forms and hope I don’t accidentally commit a crime by getting confused and checking the wrong box, finish up this website—honestly I don’t think continuing this list will be good for my anxiety. It’s just…a lot. And not a lot of time left (I shouldn’t have checked the date).
When I decided to do this, I knew it would be quite the undertaking, but I still decided to approach it with an Elle Woods “What, like it’s hard?” attitude. Though maybe that was a better metaphor than I thought. Sure, in that moment Elle shrugged off getting into Harvard, but that was only after months of hard work. Studying for the LSAT, making her entrance essay video, sacrificing for a larger goal, only to brush off all her effort. Only to try to appear effortless.
There’s a weird dichotomy that we want from our leaders. We want them to have earned it; to be working hard and proving they deserve their position, but at the same time we want an air of ease. We want them to seem like a natural, we want them to seem authentic and relatable, and yet like they were born to wield power. I think that’s one of the (many) things that keeps normal people from running for office. We look at ourselves and say, “well, I don’t have that, so it couldn’t be me.” Maybe not so much anymore, looking around at some of the people in office, but I think there’s still a hesitation, a feeling of “why me?”
I don’t really have a good answer to that question yet. But I also don’t have a good answer to the question: Why not me?
As soon as I decided to do this I immediately told everyone in my life so I’d be too embarrassed to chicken out. It worked, I genuinely don’t know if I could have pushed through all the stress, all the fear, if it weren’t for that. But what I didn’t expect was how genuinely enthusiastic everyone would be. I figured they’d support me in the same way they’d support if I told them I was going to learn tap dancing, because they’re kind, wonderful people who love me and cheer me on in so many of my endeavors. Instead, I was given real excitement. Volunteering to help, giving advice, asking for updates regularly, cheering me on.
I haven’t found ease, but I’ve found community.
I think more normal people should run for office. People that will be held back by the necessity of having a full-time job, people who can’t fund significant portions of their own campaign, and people who won’t get the support of the current mainstream Democratic party because their ideas are good for people like them instead of the rich doners who like to buy elections. It’s not easy—I know that from experience and I haven’t even announced yet—but it’s not done alone. And just like Elle Woods going to Harvard: it’s worth doing.
I don’t really know what the point of this was. I saw that the website builder I’m using had a blog feature and went, “That’s probably a good idea. Oh, I should have something up when I launch.” And here we are. I think that’s what this will be, musings on what it’s like to run a campaign, wherever that takes me.