Think About Running for Public Office Next Year

There are no scheduled Kentucky elections in 2013, so KFTC is putting a lot of the effort we would have put into massive voter registration and mobilization and we'll instead focus on planning and training for the big elections ahead in 2014.  

Next year, we'll have a big US Senate race, our 6 US House seats will be up for election, plus 19 of the 38 state Senate races, all 100 state House races, plus many local county and city races. 

KFTC encourages our members and allies to consider running for public office themselves in 2014 - and we will host a candidate training later in the year to help people prepare to run.

One of the most common questions people are asking is “What would that take?”

Some general answers include time, dedication, an idea of how to make things better, a solid connection to your community, friends, a willingness to ask others to invest in your campaign, and a lot of drive and self-motivation.

It depends a lot on what office you’re interested in running for, but we’ve found that a good way to illustrate the amount of effort it would take to win an election is to talk about how many (or few) votes it has taken to win different offices in past similar elections.

Here are some examples to give you an idea. We use the 2010 results in most cases because it was the last year we had U.S. Senate race in a non-presidential year, similiar to what we'll have next year.

State Representative Races, 2010 – 8,290 votes (average).  In 2010, a similar election year to the one we're about to have in 2014, only 55 of the 100 state House races were contested in the general election.  The 45 other elections ran with no opposition.  Of those 33, the winner received 8,290 votes on average, with winning vote counts as low as 5,120 votes or as high as 15,019 votes. 

State Senate Races, 2010 – 20,709 votes (average).  In 2010, a similar election year to the one we're about to have in 2014, 13 of the 19 state Senate races were contested in the general election.  The 6 other elections ran with no opposition.  Of those 13, the winner received 20,709 votes on average, with winning vote counts as low as 16,291 votes or as high as 30,305 votes. 

KY US House of Representatives Races, 2010 – 145,387 votes (average).  In 2010, a similar election year to the one we're about to have in 2014, the winner received 145,387 votes on average, with winning vote counts as low as 119,812 votes or as high as 15,5906 votes. 

Lexington City Council Races (District), 2010 – 3,363 votes (average).  In 2010, a similar election to the one we’re about to have in 2014, 5 of the 12 seats were contested.  The winner in those 5 district races received 3,363 votes on average and winning Lexington district City Council members received vote counts as low as 1,570 votes or as high as 4,210 votes.

And of course city and county races of areas less populated than Lexington take fewer votes to win.

Do some research about offices you might be interested in running for.  It might not be as hard to win as you might imagine.