All Politics is Local: How to Get Involved in Local Politics

It’s all (still) local.

Never has there ever been a bigger case for local political involvement than in 2020. From the community-level response to COVID or racial justice, to ongoing issues like climate change, far more of our daily life is impacted by local politics than we may have realized. The renewed focus on our arm’s-reach leaders comes at a time where local papers are vanishing, and schooling up on the down-ballot takes a little more work. But you’re a Verse reader—and “challenging” has never stopped you before (brushes shoulder). We’ve got some tips to make getting involved a bit more turnkey.

Connect the dots.

Start with a little research to understand the impact of various local government positions and boards, and what types of things they impact—understanding the connection to various issues will help you to direct your engagement. Here’s a good summary on the responsibilities of school boards, information about mayors and climate change, and the importance of prosecutors.

Suss out the candidates.

We’ve previously talked about Vote Smart but it warrants another shout-out: simply plug in your address and they’ll serve you up some facts about politicians running in your local races. If they’re still up and running, check out your local paper or local public radio (maybe subscribe while you’re at it), as they will frequently endorse candidates and cover pressing issues. If you find a candidate with positions you’re feeling, sign up to get their campaign updates so you can keep dibs on their positions and issues.

Help em’ win.

Thinking about getting your feet wet with a local campaign? We like this guide from Harvard Law School. Starting on a small, local campaign might be a great way to see what works for you—and you’re likely to be able to interface much more with the actual candidate, to boot. Even during COVID, we’ve found there is still plenty to do to assist. 

Hop in the arena.

You might go through all of the steps above and realize that you’re the perfect person for the job. This article lays out some things to consider, but you’ll probably need to start by understanding the local regulations about eligibility (we never claimed it was glamorous). The DNC lists resources for candidates considering a run, and while we didn’t find a similar list on the RNC site, various state GOP sites do offer help to potential candidates.