Why More Unitarian Universalists Should Campaign for Elected Office

When Laura Marie Davis moved back home from North Carolina to Warren County, Ohio, she started volunteering with some local advocacy organizations and told a few people she was open to campaigning for a local office. It wasn’t long before she got a call from an Ohio Democratic Party official, mentioning the 2024 state House race was approaching, and that no other progressives had indicated interest in being a candidate in her GOP-dominated district.

A portrait of Laura Marie Davis, a UU who campaigned for a state house seat in Ohio. — Laura Marie Davis, a UU who campaigned for state office in Ohio.

Courtesy Laura Marie Davis

Davis knew her campaign would be a longshot, but “If I hadn’t run, the race probably would have gone uncontested, and that’s the most undemocratic thing possible.” A Unitarian Universalist who previously earned a UU the Vote fellowship for deep canvassing work, Davis says UU values influence her work, adding, “My spiritual values and political values are very much intertwined.”

There was no fairytale ending. Though Davis lost decisively, she cherishes the experience.

“There’s a short-term and long-term in all of our politics,” says Davis. Without her candidacy, thousands of voters would never have heard progressive perspectives for the race, and Davis notes, “All of those connections I made in the community can be built upon by me or by others” in the next election.

A whopping 70 percent of the nearly 77,000 U.S. elections last year went uncontested, according to Ballotpedia, the online political encyclopedia. The 30 percent of races with some level of competition was the lowest since Ballotpedia began tracking the stat in 2018.

Gerrymandering has made more districts than ever “non-competitive,” helping make it unattractive for candidates to run in districts stacked with voters whose ideology runs counter to theirs. Voters frequently are left with no meaningful choices for state and local offices on Election Day, and most often it’s the Democratic Party that declines to compete.

A whopping 70 percent of the nearly 77,000 U.S. elections last year went uncontested, according to Ballotpedia, the online political encyclopedia.

But many progressive thinkers believe this absence is a crucial mistake. Sarah Gray, a Cherokee Nation member who ran for county commission in Tulsa, Oklahoma last year, wrote on Twitter, “We have to be willing to try. We are disconnected more than we’re divided and being vulnerable, standing on someone’s front porch, extending a hand, and inviting them to find the things you agree on—that’s a powerful moment of connection.”

Local Races Races Develop Talent for National Progress

A smiling person with short, curly hair and glasses in a blue blazer and shirt, arms crossed and smiling as they pose for a photo outdoors. — Carey McDonald, UUA Executive Vice President and a Malden, Massachusetts, city councillor.

© Paul Hammersley

Progressives often focus heavily on federal elections, but local and state elections determine who makes the rules on voting, redistricting, and rules that shape state policy and influence all other elections.

Carey McDonald also ran for local office and is currently serving their second term as a city councillor in Malden, Massachusetts⸺a diverse community in the Boston area. McDonald extols the virtues of focusing energy close to home.

“When you spend more time with your neighbors, you feel like you’re a part of something, rather than feeling isolated,” says McDonald, who also serves as Executive Vice President of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

McDonald notes the influence of local offices goes beyond making policy: “We talk about the votes I can take as a city councilor to approve a budget or a zoning change, but it’s also informal power and what we call attention to…and when you grapple with disagreements, you learn how to maintain mutual respect, since you’ll no doubt run into one another on the sidewalk or in the park.”

McDonald says UU values helped motivate them and “guide me like a North Star.”

Those values intersect with advice McDonald recalled from then-Senator Joe Biden at a forum in Washington, D.C., that (McDonald’s paraphrasing) “you shouldn’t be running for office if you don’t know what you’re willing to lose the election for.”

“When you spend more time with your neighbors, you feel like you’re a part of something, rather than feeling isolated.”

Running for office usually means at least some activities that stretch the comfort zone of most people, like fundraising and knocking on the doors of strangers, but there are many excellent support services available to help those willing to consider the possibility. Now is the time to act for those who would consider competing in a fall race.

As U.S. Representative ‪Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) wrote recently on the social media platform BlueSky, “Big changes at the top happen when the ground shifts at the bottom. And that can start now.”