Running For (and Losing) Public Office
How to fail and yet simultaneously win.
Picture this… it’s October 15th, 1992 in beautiful Bowling Green, Indiana. I’m a five year old boy, upstairs with my brother in the bedroom we shared, and I’m using my all time favorite toy a Playskool Cassette Tape Player Recorder. What do you imagine I would be doing with this toy on this date?
If you said I would be watching the highly contested 3-way race for President of the United States debate in a town hall style platform…You’d be right!
I remember this like it was yesterday.
I remember I liked how the candidates were asked open ended questions and then given time to speak their mind. Eventually I fired up my Playskool and held the microphone up the the tv speaker so I could record what they were saying and listen to it again later. I got so into it, I started asking my brother all types of questions and recorded them as if we were running for president. At the end of the night I knew two things:
I was a fan of George Bush and Ross Perot, and I did not care for Bill Clinton.
I dreamed someday of being smart enough and confident enough to do something like run for office.
In general, politics were not discussed in our house growing up. I couldn’t tell you if we were Democrats or Republicans. I found out that my Great Grandfather Doc Royer was a local leader of the depression era Democrat Party and my Grandpa Carl Day took pride that his Democrat vote would cancel out his brother Earl’s Republican vote. We didn’t put campaign signs up our yard. We never went door to door to support any candidates. I don’t even recall hearing any policies we like or were against. We tended to just be apathetic. Then President Bill Clinton took a fancy to Monica Lewinsky, and it become the catalyst to my education into politics.
During my 6th grade of elementary school I learned way too much about hot topics like impeachment, perjury, Newt Gingrich, obstruction of justice, abuse of power, Ken Star all prominently discussed on the nightly news. The first time I ever heard The Rush Limbaugh Show, was when I got into trouble and had to eat my lunch in the classroom. My teacher turned on his radio and we listened to Rush rant about what was going on in the Clinton Saga.
I then began to closely follow the 2000 election cycle. I research candidates on both sides and familiarized myself with the problems of the country and the solutions each candidate had to offer. Initially, I supported John McCain, the Maverick Senator from Arizona, but once his bid failed I was in favor of George W. Bush.
I watched every debate that season knowing it was going to be a close race. I stayed up late on election night…and fell asleep without a president-elect. Then when I woke up to my surprise we still didn’t have a president-elect At the time I was working for a dairy farm down the road. I remember my excitement when I went to milk at 6:00 AM and was trying to converse with the other worker about how interesting the situation was. She was not amused. As a matter of fact, we didn’t know who the eventual president was going to be for many weeks later. Eventually after all the hanging chads, James Baker press conferences, and recounts the Supreme Court ruled that W. had won. I was very excited. Not just that my guy won, but I fell in love with the system. For all its faults…it held together. I’m sure Mr. Gore (not a fan) and Mr. Lieberman (HUGE fan) felt jipped, but they system designed and built by the framers held together. Ever since I have followed candidates, parties, issues, and policy ideas very closely.
In football they talk about famous coaching trees. About how this or that coach used to coach for a different coach, who was ultimately coached by a Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells, Vince Lombardi, or Chuck Noll (super successful famous coaches) as an example.
I am a Republican, but not a cookie cutter Republican. When looking for a candidate my criteria tends to be a little different than the mainstream. I look for candidates who present out of the box solutions to big problems. I don’t need bravado and bluster, but I appreciate coherent thought with rational pragmatic thinking. As an Asthmatic, I am never fond of anyone blowing smoke my way either literally or figuratively. My Christian faith and notions of patriotism are very important to me, but if I sense it is being used as a weapon or falsely promulgated it is an instant permanent turnoff. Therefore, if I had to give a political tree (or list of candidates that I model myself after) It would include names like: Mitch Daniels, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Joe Lieberman, Ben Sasse, Dwight Eisenhower, Calvin Coolidge, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. I find these candidates to be pragmatic conservative doers and they have my respect even if I don’t buy everything they try to sell.
Over the past 4 years I have seriously considered my role in politics. Was I just going to be an observer? A pontificator or sideline critic? Or, was I going to eventually engage and throw my hat into the ring. I thought seriously of running for County Council in 2020, but felt that I did not have the stomach to run against 3 incumbents. In retrospect, thank God I didn’t. I was spared the disaster of making decisions stemming from the COVID pandemic. It also wasn’t the right time in my family life. We had five children and the twins were just a year old. I wanted to be available to them as much as possible.
In the January of 2024, I talked it over with Elizabeth and we decided it was a good time to go for it. She has always been my biggest fan and supporter. So in February I took the family with me to the Clay County Courthouse and filed! So far I was the only person running for 1 of 3 county wide at large bids. I checked back with the election office several times over the next 3 weeks to see if there was going to be much competition. As of one day out from the filing deadline there were just 3 people running for 3 spots! I was overjoyed. The next day after the noon filing deadline I called to check in…and there were now 6 people running for 3 spots.
I took inventory of my competition and felt I had a very good chance of competing for one of the 3 seats. It was a county wide at large seat which meant that my hometown, the town I went to high school, and the town where I am a public school teacher would all be available to vote for me. I was the youngest on the ticket by probably 20 years. I had vision and ran on issues that seemed to excite people when I talked about them (reclaiming some forest areas for camping and nature trails, creating county wide access to the public library, having a vision for a 10% population growth by the next census).
From February to May 7th we hit the campaign trail as aggressively as any other candidates. If I’m being honest, probably more aggressive than any other candidates. Crafty Ole Elizabeth got to work cricuting vinyl and making about 75 double sided yard signs (we spent about $250 compared to the $1300 quote we received from a vendor), we ordered some pens on Amazon, we had a strong Facebook page where I would share ideas and videos about how countywide finance works. We went to fish frys, walked in a parade, went to every early voting day activity and made lots of memories in the process. I felt very good about our chances.
May 7th came and it was election day. Due to scattered severe storms, I did not ask anyone to sit outside the polls for me, but I spent the day in Clay City where there is a good turnout and I thought I could peel some votes strategically from a couple other opponents. I had a great time with some of the other candidates and their surrogates down there and as folks would walk we would say hello and thank them for voting. Once the polls closed at 6:00PM we packed up and headed to a small reception at Elizabeth’s parents house. We had a taco bar and a few friends over to watch the returns. It took an hour for the first wave of absentee ballots and early walk in voting to be posted. When the first votes to be counted were posted I was in 4th place (I needed to be 3rd to have a seat). Little by little the precinct machines reported and when it was all said and done…I got last place.
I missed 4th place by 1 vote and 3rd place by 365 votes out of a total of 9,862 votes cast.
I broke the news to my kids, friends, and others who had gathered to watch the results. It was hard. I tried to put on a brave face and say something to the effect that I was super proud of what we had accomplished, and that even Abraham Lincoln lost a host of elections before he made his mark on history. My kids were spitting mad. They immediately jumped to comments about the election being rigged. I stopped them immediately and called for the attention of everyone in the room. “Just because the outcome is not what we want, that doesn’t mean anything is rigged. Sometimes in life you just lose. But just because you might lose…that should not deter you from trying big things. ” We wrapped up our party and headed home to feed the animals.
I drove myself home and I was alone with my thoughts. My emotions were all over the place.
I was confused, “I put in the most hours of anyone of my opponents. How could I not only not win…but come in dead last?”.
I was angry mostly at myself, “If I had just not been so lazy and went door to door…If I had not been so timid and spoke to more people at the polls…If I presented myself more attractive physically…If I hadn’t had so much hubris that I assumed everybody loved me…”
Weirdly though, I was also proud. Proud of the way my family represented and supported me through the process. Proud that I stepped out and tried something that most other people said they would be to scared to try. Proud that I made lots of good friends and contacts in the process. It was a lot to hold in my head at one time, but when my head hit the pillow exhaustion took over and I was out.
I dreaded the next day at school. I had to tell all my friends and some students the bad news over and over again. I worried they would react poorly and mock me, but I was met with kindness and affirmation. It was over and as FDR said, ”The only thing I had to fear was…fear itself.”
In the end I consider losing this election a major win and stepping stone in my life. I was able to convince 1503 people that I would do a good job making decisions about how to spend their dollars at the county level. I gave my children a demonstration on how to pursue a dream and live with the results…even if they are not the ones you wanted. I identified areas I could grow and improve as a speaker/communicator and got my ego checked into alignment. I watched my wife/best friend go above and beyond anything I ever thought I would ask of her. She spent countless hours cricketing all of our signs, keeping the kids so I could go to events, making me anything I ever asked for, and made me look good by being the beauty she already is.
Overall even though the vote total may disagree…I’m already a winner.
Great takeaways and that shows such a high amount of introspection and thoughtfulness that many politicians don’t have these days. But also, you went up against some pretty big names, and most of them have had 20+ more years than you to make connections in the community. Also, you and your family just happen to be from the smallest town in the county, which doesn’t help when other candidates grew up in Brazil (more classmates). I love that you turned your thinking to “look at how many people I was able to talk into voting for me” because that speaks volumes.
You mentioned Ben Sasse. Have you read Ben Sasse's book, "Them: Why We Hate Each other and How To Heal"
I am a big fan.