Elections 101

How to RUN for Office on the City and County LEVEL

Property Taxes pay for multiple budgets. In Liberty County, The County has a $65 million budget, the City of Hinesville has almost $30 million budget and the School Board has a $157 million budget. The people you elect run these budgets and make ordinances and plan for the future for your county, city and schools. Elections are IMPORTANT because these elected officials representative you at the local level.

If you vote then you mainly participate in Presidential Elections, Liberty County had about 64% voter turnout which was a record. Other elections which are midterms, state, county, city and school board have a much smaller turnout.

These locals Executive positions which are County chairman, Mayor and School Board Chairman run the day-to-day operations for their levels while making the agenda for their Boards.

The local Legislative positions are the Board members which are City Council, Board of Commissioners, and School Board members vote for HOW the agenda is going to be carried out.

The Executive may produce the agenda but the Legislative vote on the issues and with a simple majority, action items are passed and the Executive has the Greenlight to execute said plan.

What do you need to run for office?

1. Candiate

A candidate must have confidence in themselves to do the job. Can you run budgets? Speak in public? Gather information and make sound decisions? If you can, then you may be a candidate. These are the qualifications for an elected position in GEORGIA:

• Age: Must be at least 30 years old on the day they assume office.

• Citizenship: Must have been a citizen of the United States for at least 15 years.

• Residency: Must have been a legal resident of Georgia for at least six years immediately preceding the election.

Every position has different qualifications but these are the qualifications for GOVERNOR in Georgia.

You don’t need a Political Science Degree or be a CEO of a business. It starts with courage.

2. Message

Every campaign has their own issues and you have to have 2 - 3 messages which are going to be the focal point of your campaign. These talking points are going to have to be repeated throughout the campaign so be well-versed in these topics. Also, find out what voters want throughout your campaign. They will have issues that they want address and you can gather that information and make a decision of how YOU would solve that problem.

3. Team of at least 3 people

Every campaign should have 3 members on that team. First, is the candidate; next is the campaign manager which will discuss strategies on how to be successful and finally but VERY IMPORTANT will be the Secretary General which is a consultant for the candidate. This person should be a spouse, best friend or sibling. When the candidate questions their own campaign or decisions they make, the candidate is going to want to give feedback. I personally used my brother which I called 3 times a week to discuss my campaign in 2024.

Funding is always an issue and every election is different. Whether you are trying to receive 200 votes to win a City Council seat or 13,000 votes to be the County Chairman; funding is based on the size of your voting block. I would suggest at least $2,000 for a basic city or school board election; $5,000 for county districts and at least $7,000 for a county-wide election like Sheriff. The easiest way to fund it will be a loan from the bank. You can do fund-raising throughout the campaign and have other people fund your campaign just know the longer you do fund-raising, the more funds you will have. First-time candidates always struggle because they don’t have an established name and make many mistakes (I know I did).

Campaigns run out of money all the time.

If you don’t mess with Facebook or other social medias; here are some videos.

You must be change that you want to see in your community. I waited 25 years and had to run after that. How long will you wait?