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Snapchat's Run for Office portal aims to help young people launch their political careers. By creating a Mini, the social media platform will connect those interested in politics and running for office with available political positions of which they may be interested. And with over 75,000 positions with which to search, there is bound to be something for everyone interested in holding a political office, something of which more young people are interested in doing.
To conceptualize and build Run for Office, according to engadget, Snapchat worked with 10 recruitment organizations to build a huge database of available political offices for which young people could run. And with all vetted, each positing listed is a legitimate office that can be held at the local level for those interested in making change locally.
Before being able to search available offices, potential candidates have to fill out a brief questionnaire that includes interests and things passionate about changing. Once that is completed, according to The Verge, young people will be connected with candidate recruitment organizations that can help provide resources on how to run a successful campaign. And with organizations from New American Leaders, Run GenZ, LGBTQ Victory Institute, and more, the ability to have more multicultural and diverse candidates succeed in filling positions in political office may be as easy as just an app click away.
And for those who may not be interested in holding office themselves but have friends or know others in the community who would be a perfect fit for an office, according to engadget, users can nominate others from the miniature app within Snapchat as well.
This is not Snapchat's first foray into politics, according to The Verge. In 2018, the app offered resources in which to register to vote for the primaries. And again in 2020, the app offered features of not only registering to vote but voter guide and a checklist to help users double-check that they did everything correctly to make their vote count when voting to elect the next president of the United States.
According to the publication, these resources were used by nearly 30 million users. As such, they are poised to make a huge influence in the political field by having a demographic of 13 to 24-year olds, a good portion of which are of the age to hold office. And if they are not able to hold office yet due to age, according to NPR, young people can still register to learn more about issues they care about and how they can help their communities even without holding office.
By making young people realize that it is not just rich Americans who can hold office, the hope is that political office will begin to resemble real life and that the diverse makeup of the community can be reflected by lawmakers a well.