Local Elections – Where Leadership Starts
Here in the Keystone State, we've been busy anticipating today's vote. While some might think off-year elections don't matter, those of us who understand leadership know better. We understand something fundamental about civic engagement:
If you don't vote in the minors, you'll never play in the majors.
Tomorrow, voters across the country will head to the polls to elect judges, county officials, school board members, mayors, district attorneys, and more. These aren't the headline-grabbing presidential races that dominate cable news. These are the races that actually affect your daily life – the judges who interpret your laws, the school boards that educate your children, the local officials who manage your communities.
This is where tremendous citizenship begins. This is where leaders are made.
What's on Your Ballot
No matter where you live, your ballot tomorrow may include candidates in the running that hold just as much weight as any presidential election:
Governors and Statewide Officials
Some states are electing governors, lieutenant governors, and attorneys general. These are the executives who lead your state, set policy direction, and represent your interests.
Judges
State Supreme Court justices, appellate court judges, local judges – the people who interpret your laws and deliver justice in your community. These aren't appointed positions handed down from on high. You elect them. Their decisions will affect your rights, property, and family for years to come.
School Boards
The people who decide what your children learn, what curriculum they follow, and how your local tax dollars are spent on education. Want a say in your kids' education? This is where it happens.
Local Officials
Mayors, county executives, controllers, commissioners, sheriffs, district attorneys, city councils, and tax collectors. These are the officials who manage your local budgets, determine your property taxes, oversee your local safety, and set the direction for your community's future.
These aren't minor races. These are the officials who affect your daily life – your children's schools, your local safety, your property taxes, your community's character.
If you don't vote in the minors, you'll never play in the majors.
Why Local Elections Matter More Than You Think
My father, Charlie "Tremendous" Jones, used to say: "I could write a book about what's wrong with America, but I could write a library about what's right with America."
He understood that our constitutional republic doesn't work from the top down – it works from the bottom up.
Every president, senator, and governor began their careers somewhere. They started local. They served on city councils, school boards, and county commissions. They learned leadership in the trenches before they ever dreamed of higher office.
More importantly, Local government affects your daily life more than Washington ever will.
Your school board determines what your kids learn. Your county commissioners decide on zoning and development. Your district attorney determines which crimes get prosecuted. Your mayor sets the tone for your city's future.
When you skip local elections, you're surrendering control over the decisions that impact you most directly.
Why Engaged Citizens Get It Right
Those who understand leadership have always known that it starts local. There's a rich American tradition of civic engagement at every level. We don't just show up every four years for the presidential election and call ourselves patriots. We show up in the "minors" – because that's where the game is really played.
Consider what our founders created: a constitutional republic where power flows from the people UP through layers of government, not down from a king or dictator. But that system only works if citizens actually participate at every level.
When you skip the local elections, you're essentially telling the tyrants and the busybodies: "Go ahead. Run my community. Educate my children. Interpret my laws. I don't care enough to vote."
That's not leadership. That's abdication.
The Leadership Lessons of Local Engagement
1. Show Up for Every Election
Champions don't skip practice. They don't just show up for the championship game. If you want to play in the majors (presidential elections, national issues), you better vote in the minors (local races, municipal elections). The most tremendous citizens vote in EVERY election – national, state, and local.
2. Know Your Local Officials
Leadership means being informed. Do you know who your school board members are? Your county commissioners? Your district attorney? If not, you're not engaged – you're just showing up to vote blindly. Do your homework.
3. Start Where You Are
Want to change the country? Start with your community. Want to improve education? Run for school board or at least vote for candidates who share your vision. Want better local government? Get involved at the municipal level. Tremendous change starts small and local.
4. Hold Officials Accountable
Local officials are accessible in ways that senators and presidents never will be. You can attend school board meetings. You can email your mayor. You can show up at county commissioner sessions. Use that access. That's leadership in action.
5. Think Generationally
The judges you elect tomorrow will serve 10-year terms. The school board members you choose today will shape education policy that affects your children and grandchildren. Local decisions have long-term consequences. Vote accordingly.
For Those About to Vote, We Salute You
If you're voting in local elections - whether you're in Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, New Jersey, or anywhere else - you are tremendous. Not because of WHO you vote for, but because you understand that citizenship means showing up at every level.
You're proving that Americans can govern themselves from the ground up. You're demonstrating that we don't need kings or dictators – we can elect our own judges, choose our own school boards, and select our own local leaders.
You're doing something billions of people worldwide cannot do – freely choosing the officials who govern your daily life without fear, intimidation, or coercion.
My father was right: there's a library of what's right with America. And at the foundation of that library is this: we elect our leaders. All of them. From the school board to the presidency. When citizens stay engaged at every level – when they vote in the minors so they can play in the majors – our constitutional republic works exactly as the founders intended.
Stand a little taller when you cast your ballot. You're exercising leadership. You're strengthening the foundation of our republic. You're proving that engaged citizens understand what too many Americans have forgotten.
That's tremendous. That's leadership. That's America.
Now go vote.
At Tremendous Leadership, we believe that everyone has the capacity for leadership – and citizenship in a constitutional republic is where that leadership begins. Our mission is to develop leaders who understand that lasting change starts locally, who not only succeed in business but also strengthen the communities they serve. Because the most tremendous leaders never forget: leadership starts where you are.
Happy Election Day. Let's make it tremendous – together.
