
Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for - smacktoward
https://www.runforoffice.org/
======
jMyles
This doesn't appear to include student offices, which, especially at large
state universities, are very powerful and misunderstood.

If you are a student, consider running for student office. It's likely (in
fact almost certain) that your student government makes more decisions that
impact your life and spends more of your money than the national government
does.

They typically have multi-million dollar budgets, seats on powerful state-wide
committees where tens or hundreds of millions are spent, and the ability to
impact academic policy for students of the next generation.

Some also run sprawling field campuses, nature preserves or camps. I'm
particularly fond of one that is run by the Albany Student Gov: Dippikill.
Very special place.

Students in decades past fought very hard for the power and placement that
today's student governments enjoy, and education "administrators" are always
looking to carve them out and take them away. They need to be continually
defended and used.

~~~
apsec112
"Almost certain" seems like an exaggeration. At my college (Yale), the
"student government" was basically just a committee to plan Spring Fling. You
can see their budget online:

[https://www.ycc.yale.edu/budget/](https://www.ycc.yale.edu/budget/)

~~~
chimeracoder
> "Almost certain" seems like an exaggeration. At my college (Yale), the
> "student government" was basically just a committee to plan Spring Fling.
> You can see their budget online:

As a counterpoint, Columbia's student government is quite powerful.

There are multiple levels (with different domains of influence), but the most
powerful is the student senate - each school is allotted two (I think) student
senators, and they have the same level of authority as the senators
representing the faculty, etc.

Columbia also has a long history of political activism and public protest, and
the University Senate was actually established in the wake of the most famous
of these[0], to provide students with a structured outlet for supporting or
opposing university policies that did not involve literally occupying
buildings on campus.

As far as elected representation within a private institution goes, it's not
perfect, but it's pretty well-executed.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University_protests_o...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University_protests_of_1968)

~~~
coulombian
The Columbia undergraduate student government was also basically just party
planners, in addition to being a feeble roadblock to university policies. The
truly powerful group was the student-run Activities Board, which distributes
student life fees to a hundred or so student clubs and groups. (Of course, all
student governments and groups are subject to administrative oversight and
override.)

~~~
chimeracoder
> The Columbia undergraduate student government was also basically just party
> planners, in addition to being a feeble roadblock to university policies.

Not really, though the degree to which that's true depends on whether you're
talking about CCSC, ESC, GSSC, or SGA. The student governments absolutely can
effect meaningful policies of their own; I know because I worked on more than
one such policy while I was there.

> The truly powerful group was the student-run Activities Board, which
> distributes student life fees to a hundred or so student clubs and groups

ABC (Activities Board at Columbia) is only one of the four funding umbrellas
for student groups. And incidentally, ABC does not fund _any_ student groups
related to politics, religion, humanitarianism, or public activism. SGB is
responsible for all of those, and SGB's funding decisions are fairly
autonomous, as opposed to ABC's, which fall under more direct oversight from
the atrociously-named F@CU.

~~~
urs2102
I'm pretty sure our University Senate does something, but again - I always
forget what group specifically does what.

------
davidw
I applied as a candidate for the local planning commission because I think
that restrictive zoning is driving some portion of inequality in this country,
and also has a lot of problems in terms of long term financial stability (see:
Strong Towns). I've never done anything like that before; we'll see how it
goes.

~~~
tptacek
That's awesome! Are you keeping a journal of what's happening with it? Maybe
we should stand up an invite-only Discourse site for people doing this kind of
stuff.

Also, knowing you only on HN, but also knowing that means I probably know you
better than most voters know any candidate for local office --- I'd totally
vote for you.

~~~
davidw
It's an appointed (by the city council) position, so no voting.

Thanks for the kind words!

I'm not sure what the discourse/mailing list/whatever group would promote?
Tech people getting involved in politics? We'd probably all be so busy arguing
on the list that we wouldn't have time to get anything done!

~~~
tptacek
I've found, on Slacks at least, that if you set an "all positivity no arguing"
rule on a channel, then as long as there's some other channel people can use
for that kind of stuff, the rule sticks. The same could go of a support group
for first-time candidates: support and/or productive discussions only.

------
gknoy
On a related note, Shea Silverman posted on his blog [0] about how he ran for
office in an extremely cost effective manner. It was linked on HN about two
months ago [1].

> This year I ran for Florida House of Representatives District 49 (Orlando).
> I lost, but I got 31% of the vote and I only spent $3000. My opponent got
> 69% of the vote and spent $100,000

He open sourced [2] several tools that he used to do this.

He advises participation in local hob-nobbing events (I presume this was a
local Florida thing, but your local community may have similar), and More
Facebook Advertising. He reminds us that signs should be big, and WILL be
stolen. He also advised cultivating good relations with local media by doing
press releases.

While he was running for a state office, you could probably use similar
tactics for more local things.

0: [http://blog.sheasilverman.com/2016/11/how-to-run-for-
florida...](http://blog.sheasilverman.com/2016/11/how-to-run-for-florida-
office/) 1:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13008071](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13008071)
2: [https://github.com/SheaSilverman](https://github.com/SheaSilverman)

------
jimterrapin
My name is Jim Cupples and I work on RunForOffice.org Thank you for the
suggestions and comments.

I'm a politics nerd that likes local government, and believe it has dormant
power for movements. I wrote a piece called The Bottom Carries the Top that
explains my thoughts on that stuff.

Anyway, I agree with many of the comments and we think the university
positions is a great idea.

If you like, feel free to email me at jimcupples@gmail.com or
cupples@nationbuilder.com

Hope to hear from you

~~~
eduren
I tried looking at positions in my state (South Dakota district SD-13) and the
state representatives and state senator seats have a 2016 date listed. Is
there an issue getting good data for such a small state? I might be willing to
help verify some of it.

Edit: Filled out the data entry volunteer form

~~~
jimterrapin
You are correct. We're behind on updating from the 11/2016 elections, but will
get to them within the next week.

------
LeifCarrotson
This would be _much_ more useful if they displayed some election statistics
and information on incumbents and political parties. The stated purpose of the
tool is:

> _Today, 40% of state legislature races go uncontested and the problem is
> worse at the local level. There is a crisis of leadership occurring in our
> democracy. We need more people to lead. We need more people to run for
> office._

> _Run for Office is a free service that provides all the tools you need to
> launch a successful campaign whether you are a seasoned veteran or
> first—time campaigner._

You won't "launch a successful campaign" if you are a nobody running against
an incumbent who is supported by the dominant political party in a bright red
or deep blue state. You'd need to be a seasoned veteran with wide name
recognition who is very well connected, well liked, and also wealthy, but then
you're not likely to be using this tool.

It's in the races where the incumbent is not running for reelection, the
position is nonpartisan, or there's a lot of turnover that someone could say
"Hey, I have a chance at that spot."

~~~
jimterrapin
You're correct in some regards, but the model of $=victory is not as
consistent as it used to be.

I think of David Brat beating House Speaker Jared Cantor in 2014 as being the
canary in the coalmine.

There's never an apples to apples comparison, but Cantor had Brat outraised by
over 20 to 1, and Brat beat him. On top of that, campaign messages are more
and more delivered and received via free mediums, like YouTube, which brings
the cost of a campaign down tremendously.

~~~
maxerickson
Brat defeated Eric Cantor who was House Majority Leader not Speaker. John
Boehner was Speaker.

------
GeneralMayhem
I know this might run somewhat counter to the point of the site, but I'd love
more information about what the effective qualifications for filling the
positions are. Obviously any moron _can_ get elected, but that doesn't mean
I'd feel particularly good about, for instance, running for SF Public Defender
without being a lawyer, or city treasurer without any background or knowledge
in finance.

~~~
Bedon292
I was actually thinking the same thing. Like it offered me the Attorney
General position, but some quick googling shows me "...No person shall be
eligible for election or appointment to the office of Attorney General unless
he is a citizen of the United States, has attained the age of thirty years,
and has the qualifications required for a judge of a court of record...". And
I don't meet two out of three of those requirements.

~~~
komali2
At the very least the site should ask your age as well as your location.
Otherwise, it'd show every US citizen as eligible to run for president, which
obviously isn't true for anybody under, what, 35?

~~~
anigbrowl
Or anyone who wasn't born a citizen. My wife came here when she was 2 but that
makes her less of an American than someone who chose to be born here,
apparently.

------
tptacek
There's a powerful social permission / imposter syndrome thing that works
against people running for office, so an effective thing you can do even if
you yourself can't bring yourself to stand for office is to convince friends
to do it, and offer to support their candidacies.

I've found it's remarkably easy to have that conversation with people.
Ultimately, telling someone you'd support them if they ran for elected office
is a pretty major compliment. And you don't really need any context or
permission to bring it up; like saying "that's a nice jacket", you can say it
any time. More importantly: when someone they know gives them permission,
people actually will consider running.

I would much rather get 10 of my friends into local office around the country
than run myself, so that's the goal I've set for myself. I'm making decent
progress!

You or your friends should consider (and probably prefer) local administrative
offices, like park districts or water reclamation. You don't need to be a
subject matter expert to run for these --- that's not expected of you (source:
friends who have these jobs). If you're wondering "why bother?", the answer is
that having _any_ kind of elected office magnifies your influence with other
representatives and stakeholders. It's also great practice.

Running for the kinds of offices everyone has heard of --- Congress and Senate
--- is extremely expensive (in the multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars)
and, depending on the state you're in, might have a large component of
building relationships with your state party. I say this not to discourage
people from trying --- especially if you're thinking of running D in an
unopposed R district or vice versa --- but to set expectations. Running your
first time is easier than you probably think it is, as long as you pick the
right office to run for.

If you're on a (recreational) Slack right now, consider opening up a channel
and inviting people into it and spontaneously getting a couple people
interested in running. I was on IRC channels in the 1990s that started
companies that later sold for 9 figures (and the #!w00w00 people can tell you
better stories). Getting a couple friends elected to their local library board
seems like an extremely reasonable expectation to set for yourself.

If you're organizing something to get people to run for local office, I'm
interested in talking/helping. I think there are a _bunch_ of useful
applications to be built here, and also a lot of opportunities for people to
get together to share encouragement and notes.

~~~
OliverJones
True. And, if you see a news report about somebody whose positions you like
deciding to run ... send them a campaign contribution. Running for office is
quite costly these days, and no-strings-attached contributions are really
helpful.

(Many contributions have strings attached. Yours doesn't have to.)

~~~
tptacek
Running for local office is not in fact all that expensive at all!

~~~
ryandrake
Running might not be expensive, but I bet winning is.

My wild-ass guess (not a political science major) is that voters can be
bucketed into the following broad groups:

A: People who vote straight party-line, no matter what. A toad could be on the
ticket and they'd vote for it.

B: People who vote for whatever name they most recognize.

C: People who actually study the candidate's positions and make a rational
choice.

Generously let's say A=80%, B=17% and C=3% of voters.

Whether or not you get A's vote depends entirely on what letter is next to
your name--you have no control. B's vote is expensive because you need to
carpet the area with saturation advertising in order for them to remember you
when they fill out the form. C is so small that it's probably not worthwhile
to do the legwork. So you end up spending tons of money hoping that you can
get B to tip the scale towards you. At least that's how it looks to me.

~~~
djrogers
> A: People who vote straight party-line, no matter what. A toad could be on
> the ticket and they'd vote for it.

Since the parents is discussing running for local office, I'm not sure why you
think party comes in to play. Or perhaps this is a regional thing? In my city,
party affiliations are not advertised/listed for positions such as city
council, mayoral, parks board etc.

~~~
ryandrake
Interesting, I seem to recall party affiliation on most of the local positions
on my ballot. Granted, not for things like library board member.

~~~
tptacek
There's party affiliation in some local elections, but the elections
themselves are not necessarily expensive.

------
OliverJones
Stale data, unfortunately. I could run for the US federal legislature, with an
election day of Nov 8, 2016.

Also, no local elective offices in my jurisdiction.

~~~
tptacek
It's unlikely your local governments have added or subtracted a lot of
positions since the last election, so just look at the 2017 elections on the
list.

~~~
YPCrumble
Most elections are on even years and the 2016 stale data is covering up many
elections that happen every two years and should be part of 2018 data.

~~~
Tangurena2
Many county and local elections are in odd numbered years. Illinois is one
example:
[https://ballotpedia.org/Illinois_elections,_2017](https://ballotpedia.org/Illinois_elections,_2017)

------
saurik
Most people know they can run for federal and state offices, even if they
don't know what district they are in (and this barely matters, as the election
office will tell you); and while they don't know some of the more esoteric
offices, those offices tend to not have much power.

What people usually don't know about is all of the local government positions
that affect their daily lives: many of the things you care most about exist
_below the level of a city_ , and yet websites like this throw aside all of
the water districts and park districts and commumity service districts as if
they don't matter :/.

Honestly, as someone deeply involved in politics at this point, who burns a
lot of time into trying to educate people as to how government works and how
to get involved, I believe this website--which is so bad it didn't even
include _city council_ of a smaller city as a local result, returning only
internal democratic party positions--can only do more harm than good.

------
jimterrapin
My name is Jim Cupples and I work on RunForOffice.org

Thank you for the comments and suggestions. We agree with the comment on
student governments, by the way, and would be happy to include them.

Anyone can email me at jimcupples@gmail.com if they like

~~~
protomyth
You probably want to include County and Tribal government positions also.

~~~
jimterrapin
We are definitely interested in including both. We do have coverage of about
55 very large counties, but that leaves a lot yet to work on. And, we will
include all Tribal government positions that we come across. Thanks!

------
Tangurena2
I ran for elected office previously. It was a very educational experience. It
was a state level office. While I didn't win, I had fun and planned on doing
it again (I got sick in 2012 and 2016).

It cost me about $200 for my campaign, most of which went to GoDaddy for
hosting. So don't think that you need a billion dollars to run for office
(except if you want to run for US President).

------
EternalData
I always love technological solutions that ease the path forward to meaningful
action.

I wonder if there's a way to algorithmically determine how a candidate with
subpar funding could beat somebody established with many more (a playbook of
kinds). That would be the next step forward -- sure, you can run, but it flips
the dynamic when you're smart about running to win.

~~~
jimterrapin
Yes to all of this. There are algorithms to be applied, we just need
more/better data to fine tune them. Of course, it's politics, so it's more art
than science, but there is a lot to be uncovered with patterns. Great thought.

~~~
EternalData
Yeah, I guess it starts by getting more people to run, regardless of their
chances :)

------
CM30
Interesting idea for a site. However, is there a version of this for people in
countries outside of the US? Because as someone in the UK, I'd love to know
what elected offices I'd be elligible to run for over here.

And I'm sure people in places like Canada, Australia, France, etc would be
interested in a similar site for their country as well.

Still, seems pretty neat so far.

~~~
jimterrapin
Ha! Thank you for mentioning that. There is an Open Data org in Canada that
we've been working with, and we are also assembling the GIS data for the UK.
Hope to have it within the year.

------
saycheese
Anyone know of training for running for office?

For example, for women, there's this course:

[http://incubator.sheshouldrun.org/course-
modules/](http://incubator.sheshouldrun.org/course-modules/)

~~~
smacktoward
There's a decent list of organizations that provide training for prospective
Democratic candidates here: [https://www.democrats.org/page/run-for-
office](https://www.democrats.org/page/run-for-office)

I'm sure there's a similar one out there somewhere for Republicans, but since
I want them to field bad candidates I will leave finding it as an exercise for
the reader :-D

------
jimterrapin
I have to get to work, but would love to hear from anyone that's interested in
this stuff. We are looking forward to building an API and helping people
continue to build.

Mostly, we want people to simply know what they can run for and how to get on
the ballot.

Inaccuracies on the site are my fault. I work with amazing students, mostly
from USC, and we put it together as best we can. The shapefile stuff is also
sometimes wonky. A GIS student from UCLA is the awesome person behind that.

------
Bedon292
I don't think just accepting an address is enough. Many of these positions
have age and residency requirements. Or other requirements. I know they want
to make it quick, but I am not eligible (yet) for most of the positions they
listed, and would rather focus on a position I can actually run for.

------
robbyking
I searched for Athens, GA, and two positions in Chicago were included in the
results:

[https://www.runforoffice.org/elected_offices_search?address=...](https://www.runforoffice.org/elected_offices_search?address=30606)

------
xwowsersx
Is this a (clever) marketing stunt for NationBuilder?

~~~
burkaman
I think that's unnecessarily negative, this is a useful site funded by
NationBuilder. The About page is clear, they aren't trying to hide it.

~~~
xwowsersx
Perhaps the term "stunt" made my comment sound negative. That was not my
intention.

------
1024core
I work fulltime. Can we filter for positions that do not require a fulltime
commitment?

~~~
rtkwe
That's going to very much vary depending on the size of the jurisdiction of
the office but for NC they only have state level positions which will all be
full time.

As far as I know anything above a very small town position will be full time.

~~~
kibwen
_> state level positions which will all be full time_

That depends on what we mean by "full-time". Here's a great wiki page
regarding the amount of time each state legislature demands from members:
[https://ballotpedia.org/States_with_a_full-
time_legislature](https://ballotpedia.org/States_with_a_full-time_legislature)

From the stats there, there are 10 states where legislator is 80% of a full-
time job (avg. salary: $68,599), 23 where it's 70% of a full-time job (avg.
salary: $35,326), and 17 where it's 54% of a full-time job (avg. salary:
$15,984). In many of these states, legislators need to supplement their income
with jobs in the off-season (only 9 state legislatures are year-round
positions, and all of those are the ones that offer the highest salaries).

~~~
rtkwe
True but I think for the intent of the original question I think most of these
offices are largely incompatible with a normal full time job. You'd likely
need to be self employed or have an extremely flexible boss/employer because
when you're working as a state representative or senator you won't be able to
do you normal job.

~~~
dahdum
I think it would be pretty easy to land one of those flexible jobs if you were
a state rep or senator. I can imagine plenty of construction firms, law
offices, NGOs, and other institutions would be happy to carve out a part time
role for the benefit of having your ear and knowledge.

------
mtgx
If you're a Democrat, this may interest you as well:

[https://justicedemocrats.com/](https://justicedemocrats.com/)

[https://medium.com/theyoungturks/justice-democrats-
platform-...](https://medium.com/theyoungturks/justice-democrats-
platform-852246279415)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj_95Ld2g9I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj_95Ld2g9I)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeRScAQCaRg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeRScAQCaRg)

------
dmschulman
Very cool! I like how you also provide resource to get one's candidacy started

~~~
faitswulff
I didn't see it on the site, but there's also an advocacy group for science /
STEM folks who want to run for the first time: [http://www.314action.org/want-
to-run/](http://www.314action.org/want-to-run/)

~~~
rubidium
As an actual scientist, 314 looks to be a pretty partisan and shallow take on
the issues of our day.

Their energy proposal is fusion research... there are much better ways
available.

------
jedberg
This is handy, having a list of all the positions in one place with their
filing deadline!

However, it is showing me a lot of "Next Election" times that were last year.
I guess the data needs some cleanup.

Also, President seems to be missing. :)

~~~
jimterrapin
Yes on missing President. Our focus is kind of the reverse, but we'll
definitely be including that information.

------
kibwen
This is a great demonstration of the ways that people with technical skills
can contribute to improve their communities. Enabling others to exercise their
civic duties is just as valuable as exercising them yourself.

~~~
jimterrapin
That's incredibly kind of you to say. Thanks!

------
throwaway729
Is there any contact information for the site itself? The "APPLICATION
GUIDELINES" and "submit application to" information for one of the positions I
just viewed is inaccurate...

~~~
jimterrapin
You can contact me directly at jimcupples@gmail.com and I'll have a Contact Us
page up in a day or so.

------
DrScump
I'd suggest a reword to " _might_ be eligible" or "your residence qualifies
for" or somesuch. Some offices have their own specific requirements, such as
age or technical qualification.

For example, to run for California Attorney General, one "Must be admitted to
practice before the state Supreme Court for at least five years immediately
preceding election or appointment to the office".

~~~
jimterrapin
Yes, you're correct. Attorney General, Treasurer positions, Law Enforcement
positions, and a few others do require advanced degrees. We have plans to
include that in our data. Thanks.

~~~
DrScump
My comment is _not_ a criticism at all! There is a point of diminishing
returns on such projects where a pedantic correction can require loads of
work. Great work.

A similar-concept project was posted here on HN this month:

[https://whoaremyrepresentatives.org](https://whoaremyrepresentatives.org)

------
tedchs
I was previously appointed to one of my town's local boards, reviewing
aesthetics of new development. It was very rewarding in that I got to advocate
for "fair" outcomes, sometimes as a lone dissenting voice. I also learned a
ton about both government and architectural design. If I could do this in my
mid-20s, so could many others.

------
a3n
After recent marches and protests, and the real but not necessarily self-
sustaining enthusiasm that they generated, people ask "but what now?"

And the answer to that is to run for your state legislature. It's there that
voting rules, and support for incumbent national members of Congress, are set
and enforced.

Join the smoke filled room that's close to home.

------
tedchs
Is this run by Nation Builder (very much not a non-profit)? There are a couple
links there from the homepage.

~~~
burkaman
The About page is pretty clear, it is funded by them.

------
buckhx
I've thought about this in the past. If I wanted to run for governor of my
home state in 20 years, what are things that I could be doing today to move
towards that goal? I'd assume it would be running for smaller offices to gain
some political experience and creating relationships.

~~~
a3n
Be successful in business or the state legislature.

------
MichaelGG
Doesn't seem to list president.

------
timdorr
Oddly, it gave me an office in Chicago when I searched my home address in
Atlanta...

~~~
OliverJones
Is your name Richard Daley? :-)

------
j_m_b
Great work!I would also include City Council and Local School Board. It would
also be nice to list who the current office holder is and whether or not they
ran unopposed.

------
kuschku
@mods: Could the title be changed? This seems to be US-only.

------
dsfyu404ed
Granted I'm not sure the impact (if any) it has but holy crap that's a pretty
one sided sponsors list for something that's not a partisan issue.

------
codingdave
This does not seem to include any local offices... it begins at the state
level for me. There are many city and county positions that are better
beginnings.

~~~
jimterrapin
Dang. That's not the intention. We do have limited coverage regarding the
local offices. We have done 50 of the largest counties in the US, which totals
coverage of about 85 million Americans, however, that's only a quarter of the
population.

------
downandout
Just a technical note: it shows that the "next election date" for several
offices in my area is November 8, 2016.

------
anigbrowl
* unless you're a legal un-person in which case we'll exclude you from the political process as much as possible.

------
dragonwriter
Some glaring bugs, like showing some "next" election dates that are in the
past, but definitely a good idea.

------
codeddesign
After looking at NC, I was astonished to realize that a congressman makes $50k
more than the state's governor.

------
felipelemos
I find this incredible because politicians should not be a profession.

------
rc_bhg
Is there a site like except is tells me the exact day to go vote?

------
mastazi
(in USA)

------
sbw
What about local offices?

~~~
jimterrapin
The purpose of the project is to do the local offices. If we don't have any
for your county/town, it's just a matter of us not having volunteers for
there. Local offices, in my perspective, is where all the opportunity and
value is at.

------
EGreg
Why would you want to become a cog in a machine when you can build your own?

Many people run for office thinking they can change the fundamental culture
entrenched around them. But then they realize that there are so many existing
systems safeguarding the status quo, that one person can't do it. You'd need
to hire a whole new administration.

Instead, what if organizations would contract with one another for services
and respect each other's cultures as a take-it-or-leave-it kind of thing? Then
market discipline would apply.

~~~
tptacek
Not all of us can live our lives inside the lyrics of a Tool song.

