14-year-old Runs for Governor | God's World News

14-year-old Runs for Governor

08/16/2018
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    (AP Photo: Ethan Sonnenborn talks with supporters at his election night party.)

On Tuesday, Democrat voters in Vermont saw an unusual candidate on their ballots: a teenager not even old enough to vote.

Ethan Sonneborn is 14. Sonneborn met the requirements to be on the primary ballot. Before Tuesday’s election, he participated in numerous forums and debates.

The teen isn't letting anyone "despise his youth." (1 Timothy 4:12) “I think Vermonters should take me seriously because I have practical progressive ideas, and I happen to be 14, not the other way around,” Sonneborn says.

The Vermont Constitution doesn’t have an age requirement for governor other than they must have lived in the state for four years before the election. Sonneborn qualified.

The oversight by the state’s founders more than 225 years ago encouraged the politically active teen to collect the signatures needed to place him on the ballot.

Sonnenborn’s decision to run grew out of his frustration with state and national politics. He raised just over $1,700 for his campaign—not enough to make him competitive in a country where candidates spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, for ads, mailings, staff, and other expenses.

Last January, two Vermont lawmakers introduced a bill that would require candidates to be registered voters. The proposal went nowhere. Republican Governor Phil Scott thinks lawmakers should take a look at who should be able to run for the state’s highest office.

“I think you should at least be able to get your driver’s license at the time that you become governor,” says Scott. He won the Republican party’s primary Tuesday.

Sonneborn performed better in the primary than people expected. He garnered 4,681 votes. He measures his campaign’s success another way, too.

 “I think if I can get one person who wasn’t involved in the political process before involved now,” he says, “then my campaign will have been a success.”

(AP Photo: Ethan Sonnenborn talks with supporters at his election night party.)