Teenage politicians

From the Washington Post, a few weeks ago:

Saira Blair will graduate from a West Virginia high school later this month. She posts photos of her smoothie habit on Instagram, volunteers at the Martinsburg VA hospital and helps raise money for the Make-a-Wish foundation. She will not be eligible to vote until July. But on Tuesday, she beat a sitting state delegate who was seeking a third term in office. With all 13 precincts in her Martinsburg-area district reporting, Blair beat state Del. Larry Kump (R) by an 872-728 vote margin.

Quoting "America: The Book": “This Connecticut-born, Yale- and Harvard-educated multi-millionaire son of a former president ran as an outsider in 2000. Many experts are still wondering how the f*** he pulled that off.” I'm wondering how she pulled it off, as the GOP tends to be HIGHLY age discriminatory (my impression, at least). And while I don't exactly agree with her platform, I do applaud her for running in the first place. We need young people in office who believe in urbanization, in improving infrastructure, in returning America to where it was years ago. In general, we need young, fresh minds in public office.

I'm seriously impressed. She's almost six years my junior and yet she's going to be a state legislator, since Romney swept her district in 2012. And does it surprise me that she's a Republican? Not at all. If she wasn't, it would. I'd like to believe that more politically active people are Democrats (my personal bias, of course), but it's an even split. But West Virginia is conservative territory, and the GOP is making a pitch to get women into office.

The Democrats need to find a way to counter this. They'll have me to start, and I can run as someone who is willing to work across the aisle to work on issues. And if elected I would sincerely work across the aisle.