Over the past few months, I’ve talked with people from all across Delaware County who would make wonderful candidates for town supervisor and I keep hearing the same thing: “I just don’t think I’ll win.”
I get it. It’s a big investment and losing can be heartbreaking. But, I want to offer a different way of thinking about it.
Winning is only one outcome. The act of running for office does something no victory or defeat can take away. When you run, you start a conversation your community didn’t know it needed. You give your neighbors permission to imagine what’s possible. You ask people for their ideas, and something remarkable happens: they feel heard. They feel hopeful. They feel like they also can contribute, so they show up.
Political scientists call it the Role Model Effect: when people see someone like them run for office, they begin to believe they can run too. Jesse Jackson never won the presidency — but he reshaped the Democratic Party and inspired a generation of candidates who came after him. A candidacy can do that, even one that loses.
I know this effect personally. My journey into local government began the day I met Jessi Raber. She was running for mayor of Delhi because she was frustrated that county leaders weren’t willing to discuss sharing sales tax revenue with the towns and villages of Delaware County. She didn’t win. But watching her run her race with authenticity and courage was inspiring, and challenged me to think “why not me?”.
Around the same time, I met Janet Tweed at a political rally in Hamden. We met on the playground while our kids played, and she told me she serves in the local government in Delhi while working full time and raising a family. Two ordinary women, going beyond their comfort zone for their community. They didn’t just inspire me, they changed what I thought was possible. In 2024, I ran for a seat on the Meredith Town Board, and won.
Jessi may not have won her race. But she is part of the reason Delaware County has one more voice in local government today. That is the ripple effect of running. You may never know whose life you change just by having the courage to try.
Don’t wait for certainty. Your community and our democracy don’t need you to be sure you’ll win. It needs you to run.
You still have time: petitions for the independent party line began circulating April 14, with a filing window of May 19–26. Learn more at rundelco.org and get your name on the ballot.
Kristin Antin
Meredith
* Kristin Antin serves on the Meredith Town Board and writes here in their individual capacity.
