I was one of the first 18-year-olds in the United States elected to public office right after 18-year-olds got the right to vote back in the early '70s. I ran for the Board of Education.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I started out as a 16 year old registering people to vote.
I have voted in every election that I have been qualified to vote in since I turned 18.
My parents elected me president of the family when I was 4. We actually had an election every year, and I always won. I'm an only child, and I could count on my mother's vote.
When I turned 18, was the first time that I really started concentrating on politics. And I started doing so because I realized that in order to really create and generate change, it has to come from changing laws... so I started campaigning for Norman Lear's foundation, which was Declare Yourself.
I got into politics when I was eight years old.
I became a Republican in 1951, the first year I could vote.
I was about 15, 16 years old when my father first ran for mayor, and that's where I cut my teeth.
My mother at the age of 65 decided she was going to run for mayor. She had never run for public office, and she decided she wanted to try and do some things for the community.
The reason I actually ran for office is because of Hillary Clinton. Everybody was telling me why I shouldn't run: I was too young, I had small children, I should start at the school board level.
I ran for president in 1996.