Why are there so few positions listed for my state?

There are many possible answers to this. First, it is possible that many positions in your state are appointed and not elected positions. We do not include appointed positions. Second, it is possible that your state's Division of Elections was not able to provide the Democratic Youth Strategy Council with qualifying information for certain positions.

Why are qualifications for county and local elected offices not available in my state?

The most likely answer is that this information is not uniform across the state, but qualifications differ from locality to locality. For many states we do in fact have county and local information, but with 3,077 counties, 30,000 cities, and hundreds of thousands of municipalities, it would be impossible to compile all of the qualifying information for each county and municipality. However, if you obtain qualifying information for a local position, send it on over to research@runforoffice.org and we will do our best to get it in the next update of the database!

Is RunForOffice.org only for Democrats?

As advocates for citizen activism, we think that all Americans should consider taking active citizenship to the next level by running for political office. Public service is a noble calling, and regardless of political affiliation, if you are dedicated to service and improving the lives of your fellow Americans, we encourage you to be involved. For this reason, we make this database available for anyone to use. There is no charge to use this site, but it can only continue from generous contributions from supporters like you! There is no partisan threshold to use this site and we'd like to keep it that way.

But the "Ready to Run" resources are only for Democrats and progressives.

Yes, RunForOffice.org is a project of the Democratic Youth Strategy Council, a partisan political organization dedicated to empowering a new generation of progressive leaders by persuading Democratic Party leaders to invest more resources into young people. Young people today are socially progressive and fiscally responsible, right where the modern Democratic Party is. We believe that, although certainly imperfect, the Democratic Party represents the best vehicle for progressive change in this country.

So if our goals are partisan, why make the site available to anyone?

Our goal is to empower citizens to take an active role in their democracy. As progressives we believe that access to our democracy should be available to all citizens, not just some. We believe RunForOffice.org is a large step forward in the movement for a people-powered politics in the United States. Empowering people to take control of their own politics isn't a Democratic goal it's a democratic goal.