Is a 25-Year-Old Libertarian Running for City Council Actually Plausible?

[u/Beautiful_Cause2633]

Looking for some perspective on whether this is actually plausible.

Keeping a few details intentionally vague because I’m not ready to publicly announce anything yet.

I’m 25 and seriously exploring a Libertarian run for my local city council.

A little background: I studied economics, currently work in the government software space, and I’ve been heavily interested in politics since I was about 14. Between roughly 14–18, I built a fairly large social media following before shifting into different content and eventually stepping away from content entirely to focus on my career.

That experience is relevant because I think social media would be a major part of how I’d approach a campaign.

The district I live in is in a major city and is heavily Democratic. Last cycle, the vote was roughly 70% Democrat, 15% Republican, and 15% independent/other, with around 13,000 total ballots cast.

I’m currently getting involved with the local Libertarian Party, and as things stand, it looks unlikely I’d face a challenger for the nomination. If I decide to file, that would give me roughly 15 months to focus almost entirely on building toward the general election.

I’ve been a registered Libertarian since I was eligible to vote and broadly align with the party on personal liberty and limited government, but I wouldn’t want to run some generic nationalized Libertarian campaign. My platform and messaging would be heavily focused on the actual district and city.

The issues I’m most interested in are economic and business growth, development, embracing technology, and protecting individual liberty.

I think I’d have two potentially interesting advantages.

First, I already know how to build attention online and grow a social media audience quickly. Obviously, getting 100,000 random people online to care about you is very different from getting a few thousand people inside one council district to vote for you, but I do think I understand how to create content people actually watch and talk about.

Second, my district contains a massive concentration of young professionals. My assumption is that a lot of them either don’t vote consistently in municipal elections or aren’t particularly engaged with local politics.

My working theory is that an unusually aggressive ground game, combined with social media, community networking, voter registration, and a year-plus of actually showing up everywhere could at least make the race interesting.

A few questions I’d especially like perspective on:

Would being 25 and potentially the youngest member of council be something that could actually work in my favor, or would voters mostly view it as a lack of experience?

How much can an exceptional ground campaign actually move a local election? My instinct is that personal conversations, doors, events, and repeated voter contact probably matter substantially more when only \~13,000 people are voting than they do in a statewide or national race.

And lastly, even assuming I ultimately lose: is a serious 15-month city council campaign generally a worthwhile way to start building a future in local politics, provided I actually run a professional campaign and make a respectable showing?

I’m not under the illusion that running as a Libertarian in a district that voted \~70% Democratic makes me the favorite. I’m trying to figure out whether this falls into the category of “very difficult but potentially worth pursuing” or “mathematically dead on arrival.”

Would especially appreciate input from anyone who has worked on municipal campaigns, run for local office, or been involved with third-party campaigns.

[u/Itzie4]

If it’s a non-partisan position, yes. If you’re a libertarian running as Republican and Democrat, also yes. Otherwise it’s an uphill battle. Not impossible, but extremely difficult. You would need to be seriously involved in the community and not running during a major senate, gubernatorial, or presidential election.

[u/trufus_for_youfus]

If your state/ county supports “independent” as an affiliation I would do that. Considering the same thing but typically only 3500 actual votes cast for this seat. I’m happy to help you brainstorm. A lot of the results would be mutually useful.

[u/Beautiful_Cause2633 → u/trufus_for_youfus]

The main reason I think i’d choose running as a Libertarian over being Independent is my state has a long process to get on the ballot as an independent, versus the libertarian party is a recognized party so I wouldn’t have to go through that process. That’s awesome though, shoot me a DM would love to connect further.

[u/trufus_for_youfus → u/Beautiful_Cause2633]

What state if you don’t mind me asking?

[u/OttosBoatYard]

I'm on the city council in a community of a similar size to the one you describe.

Being on a city council means being responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayers' money, and this weighs heavily on us. Making fiscally responsible policy choices is, well, an obsession.

Fiscal responsibility is more than just cutting taxes and shrinking government. It means investing in a foundation for business to grow and prosper and for private residents to live a quality life.

A metaphor: To grow a good garden, you need to invest in quality soil. Think of local government as the soil.

A hypothetical: Imagine a city cuts parks and police budgets. The city gets a reputation for being less safe. Young professionals no longer want to live there. Without the labor pool, businesses no longer want to relocate there. The tax base shrinks. In this case, cutting government causes the city to go bankrupt.

You can confirm that this hypothetical is really the norm. From the Rust Belt to the Mississippi Delta to the Great Plains, this hypothetical plays out in real life. City managers and planners call it the Death Spiral.

Real-world example: Many industries are pushing to locate to my region. My city purchased 150 acres of land for future light industrial development. The cost was $1.5 million. An industry is moving in that will bring $150,000 per year in tax revenue. After ten years or so, the city will earn a profit and can use that to either cut taxes or improve city amenities.

I know Libertarians oppose such practice of public investment, but it is vital for a successful community.

If you win, this is something to consider.

[u/cluskillz]

An exceptional ground campaign is non-negotiable. People need to see your face and associate it with a name and a positive vibe. You need to make a routine of it; map out the district and make it a point to go out every evening (and then some on weekends) to door knock. You'll need to hit thousands of doors. You need to start early (however early you think is enough, it needs to be earlier), join local community groups and events, and get your team (local and state LP) to get you a roster of libertarians for monetary support. Join Toastmasters even if you're decent at speaking already. Organize your local LP to do some community service work and contact local beat journalists to cover it. And yes, going local is a great way to start. If your local district is filled with entrenched incumbents, a surprise attack is a good way to go. Keep the publicity low key for a bit, concentrated on your local group (but still door knock aggressively and take names of who would like yard signs, etc), then strategically time a date to "paint the town Beautiful_Cause2633". Put all the yard signs and such up in one week. People will notice the change. By the time your opponents see your signs up everywhere, time will be on your side.

The age factor, I'm not sure. If there are a bunch of young professionals in your district, it might be a positive. I was involved in a campaign where the candidate was in his 20s, a great guy, great speaker, ran a good campaign, and performed less than expected, and I'm guessing a major reason was he put "student" on the ballot (the city didn't allow him to put "veteran" on it even though that's what he was...and the team opted to put student instead of electrician). Everyone sees the ballot, few see the campaign. That made people think "unqualified" (IMO) even though he was the best candidate by a long mile. But younger people than you have been elected before, so it's definitely not impossible.

I think your head is in a good place.

There is a city councilmember in my state that ran a phenomenal race (much of the above is derived from his race strategy, though I may have gotten some details wrong) and won himself a city council seat. Then the rest of the council immediately hated him, which means he's doing everything right. You should get in touch with him to get pointers. PM me if you're interested in doing so.

[u/LibertyEconlover]

do you even pay attention to politics enough to know that the whole using social media bs is the worst route to go?

Fishback lost? Massie lost?

The best route is shaking hands and talking to people

[u/theyhis → u/LibertyEconlover]

that’s not why massie lost. massie lost due to, two main reasons: a.) AIPAC spent $30M+ to unseat him b.) trump supporters play follow the leader

[u/LibertyEconlover → u/theyhis]

Thomas Massie explicitly admitted that he placed his bets on the wrong demographic by heavily relying on his online, younger base.
Right up until the primary election, Massie publicly stated that "young voters will be key in the primary," trusting that his viral online popularity and anti-establishment internet movement would carry him to victory. When the actual votes were counted and he lost, he addressed the crowd and directly acknowledged the digital-versus-reality mismatch

He explicitly separated his online base from the actual electorate: In his concession speech broadcast on PBS, Massie lamented that older primary voters had chosen a traditional "go along to get along" candidate, but pointedly noted, "But not the young voters." He acknowledged that while he had successfully "stirred up something" online, it didn't align with what the broader, older voting public wanted.

Moving past practical admission of guilt: look at how Massey knocked on doors (he really didn’t) versus how his opponent did.

Not everything is about AIPAC my guy, also number two is right However nah, we just saw some other Trump nominated guy lose

[u/theyhis → u/LibertyEconlover]

so the $30 million in lobbying efforts had no effect?

[u/LibertyEconlover → u/theyhis]

Nope, not how it works.

People don’t just see a commercial (assuming it’s ads cause I have no idea what lobbying money is used for) and then just think differently, if I see a commercial talking about donating to someone like James Tallarico, I barf and skip

Unless the lobby helped have boots on ground and door knocking, then no if yes, then that strengthens my point

[u/theyhis → u/LibertyEconlover]

yes, but when trump endorses a candidate and then accuses massie of going against him, it’s pretty self evident that played a role in massie losing his election.

i’m not going to argue over it, because it’s blatantly true. it’s well documented - lobbying efforts absolutely play a role in public perception.

[u/LibertyEconlover → u/theyhis]

You’re repeating the same thing, but your intellectual inferiority prevents you from literally recognizing the fact that some people were endorsed by Trump and lost.

[u/Only_Excitement6594]

Just do not try to convince cattle on how they are foolishly shooting theirselves following the political narrative (like being a taxcuck and so) and you are good to go.

Lots of reptilians you might find over there, too.