TL;DR
Local offices — school boards, city councils, state legislatures — are shaped by whoever shows up to run, and too many seats go uncontested or unchallenged by people who actually reflect their communities.
The skills you likely already use — managing crises, advocating for others, making hard calls under pressure — are governing skills, and NDTC’s free trainings exist to help you build the rest.
Even if your state’s 2026 filing deadline has passed, today is still the right day to commit: create a free NDTC account, take a course, and start laying the groundwork now.
A co-authored post from the National Democratic Training Committee and Brittney PAmoms4change
It’s the last day of Women’s History Month, and we want to leave you with something that isn’t a look back. It’s not even a look forward. It’s a step forward that you can take right now.
During Women’s History Month, we’re used to honoring heroic icons like Shirley Chisholm and Fannie Lou Hamer. And yes, endless rounds of applause for them.
But we should spend more time considering where their work has led us today and what comes next. Or even better — stop considering it and start doing it.
This Women’s History Month post is about you. Not the leaders we already celebrate. Not the trailblazers whose portraits hang in hallways. You — the person reading this right now, probably between a packed schedule and a to-do list that never quite gets done.
It’s also National Run For Office Day. And we need to talk.
The People We Need Are Already Out There
Most of us have skewed ideas of what it looks like to be a politician or a legislator. We imagine someone polished, credentialed, and comfortable in front of a crowd.
But local offices — school boards, city councils, county commissions, mayoral offices, state legislative seats — shape daily life more directly than most of what happens inside marble buildings in Washington. Too often, the people in those offices making decisions about schools, water, roads, and healthcare don’t reflect the communities they serve, simply because not enough people step up for those seats.
The offices that most need filling don’t need you to be a political juggernaut. They need people like you to step up. They need:
The teacher who has been problem-solving in underfunded classrooms and watching policy decisions get made by people who’ve never set foot in one.
The principal who has spent years managing everything from budget cuts to mental health crises to safety drills — and who knows better than anyone what kids actually need.
The nurse who has watched the healthcare system fail patients, not because of the people in it, but because of the policies around it.
The service worker who knows what it means to work a full day on your feet and still not be able to afford rent.
The parent who sat through one too many school board meetings and thought: I could do this. I should do this.
We’re looking at you.
From Brittney PAmoms4change: On Being a “Chaos Coordinator” — and Why That Qualifies You
(From the mom, nurse, and chaos coordinator behind Brittney PAmoms4change.)
I didn’t grow up thinking I’d ever be someone who talks to people about running for office. I grew up thinking that was for other people — people with law degrees and fancy pantsuits and a confidence I didn’t recognize in myself.
But as I’ve become an adult — working as a nurse, experiencing motherhood, becoming an advocate for social change — I’ve realized the person who actually knows what’s going on is usually the one in the back of the room. Writing things down. Making sure nothing falls through the cracks. Already three steps ahead of the crisis that hasn’t happened yet.
That’s every mom I know. Every nurse. Every teacher who has 28 kids in a class and somehow, someway, gets things done.
People like us have been managing complexity, advocating for people who can’t advocate for themselves, and making hard calls under pressure for years. We just haven’t always been doing it with a glamorous title.
The thing I had to get real honest with myself about is this: staying out of those political rooms doesn’t protect my community. It just leaves those seats for someone else to take. And I’ve watched what happens when that someone else doesn’t share our values, doesn’t know our neighborhoods, and doesn’t care about our kids’ futures — I’m sure you have too.
We have to stop waiting for permission to step up. Stop waiting for someone more prepared, more polished, more whatever. Nobody’s coming to save our communities, our country. That was always going to be on us.
So let’s go.
Yes, Some Filing Deadlines Have Passed — Here’s Why That Doesn’t Matter Right Now
Depending on where you live, the 2026 filing deadline for some races may have already passed. If that’s you, it might feel like today’s not really your day.
But it absolutely is.
Because the decision to run for office is a commitment you make to yourself and your community first. And the candidates who win are rarely the ones who decided six weeks before the deadline. They’re the ones who spent months before that learning, building relationships, and quietly laying the groundwork.
So here’s what you can do right now, wherever you are in the process:
Create a free account with NDTC at traindems.org. It takes five minutes and unlocks access to training designed specifically for first-time and future candidates.
Take your first course or register for your first live training. NDTC’s on-demand trainings cover everything from getting on the ballot to writing a campaign budget. You don’t need to know anything going in. That’s the whole point.
Find out your state’s next filing window. Many states have 2026 deadlines still ahead, and all of them have 2027 and 2028 races that need candidates. Look up your state’s election calendar and write the date down somewhere you’ll see it.
Tell one person. Saying “I’m thinking about running for office” out loud — to a friend, a partner, a coworker — makes it real in a way that thinking about it never does. It also might start a conversation that surprises you.
So on this National Run For Office Day, as we close out Women’s History Month, Brittney PAmoms4change stands alongside us as proof that the most qualified people are often the ones who’ve never considered themselves candidates. We need you to answer this: What’s the first step you’re going to take?
Thinking about doing it is the first step. Actually doing it gets us closer to a better democracy than you’d think.
In the words of Michelle Obama: “Do something.” So do it today.
Create your free NDTC account and start your first training at TrainDems.org. Follow Brittney PAmoms4change for community, resources, and the kind of honest conversation about civic life that you didn’t know you needed.
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