Ten Reasons Young People Don’t Run for Office

Ron McIntyre
5 min readMar 25, 2024
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Eight months from the November Elections and staring at two very different choices for President and many equally bizarre choices for other national and state offices, many are pondering why young people are not running for office.

I once naively thought that putting a solid businessperson in office could address the many problems that career politicians create. However, after the 2016 debacle, I changed my position because of that administration. The greed and secrecy of business blasted out of the box and are still separating this county on many fronts.

Finding alternatives to the current two-party system is way beyond anything we can muster resources to fix so we have what we have. Unfortunately, not voting in protest encourages the radicals to seize control, and that is my biggest fear at this time. The White House should never be available to the highest bidder, which seems to be the case right now.

Young people may hesitate to run for public office for various reasons, from personal constraints to broader systemic issues.

Here are ten possible reasons:

  1. Financial Constraints: Campaigning today is expensive, and young individuals may lack the necessary funds or access to donors, making it difficult for them to compete effectively. This is the primary reason…

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Ron McIntyre

Ron McIntyre is a Leadership Anthropologist, Author, and Consultant, who, in semi-retirement, is looking to help people who really want to make a difference.