Earlier this year, the young face of Dean Roy popped up all over my feed, a 14-year-old candidate for the Governor of Vermont. Everyone kept sending it to me with the same question: “Has he read your book?” He hadn’t, since YOUNG WORLD wasn’t even out yet, but it made me want to send it to him. So I reached out to Dean and got in touch, before sending him and his entire campaign staff a box of early ARCs.
Over the months, I kept track of his campaign – particularly the evolution of Dean himself, who went from a shy, tentative high schooler, who’d been dared by his teacher to run for something, into a full-blown, confident candidate who believed he had something to offer.
Dean was already an amazing kid. But politics has given him his true voice. He is, in all aspects, the best representative that a future Revolting Youth party can ask for. Here’s your chance to meet him. Enjoy my recent conversation with Dean Roy, gubernatorial candidate for the state of Vermont.
SOMAN
I am here with the OG Revolting Youth, Dean Roy. Are you 14 years old now or 15?
DEAN
15, now.
SOMAN
Let’s start at the beginning. How did you become a candidate for the governor of Vermont?
DEAN
So this really all started last year, my summer after eighth grade. My teacher approached me during my eighth-grade graduation, and he told me that if I’m ever considering running for office, he would be my campaign manager. And that’s what made me then go home and look up what the age is to run for office in Vermont — and realize there were no age rules for governor.
From there I decided, you know what? I can do this. I can make some kind of change in the world. So then that led me down the pathway of figuring out how to get onto the ballot and then getting the 500 signatures that are required. I submitted them just last week, actually.
And then from there on out, it’s just been what you’d expect from a campaign. I have not started raising money. I do not know if I will. I think that it might actually be a better statement to say that I did not come from any money, and I didn’t raise any money at all.
SOMAN
Why governor versus a position on the town council or school board or state legislature?
DEAN
Two reasons. First, there’s only a select few positions in Vermont that have no age requirement. Most are local to the town. But statewide, governor is pretty much the only one.
Second, I realized it would gather a lot more media attention running for governor of Vermont than running for a more minor position in town. Running for governor is the biggest position in our state. It’s going to be a lot more impactful for a member of the youth to run for the big position, rather than choose a position that might be a bit more obtainable… but wouldn’t make a splash in politics as a whole.
SOMAN
In YOUNG WORLD, Benton Young is thrust into a big campaign he might not be ready for – not so dissimilar to you. But then there’s a moment where a switch flips and he realizes, I can do this. I can be a good president. At what point did it go from a fun challenge from your teacher to you thinking you could actually be a good governor?
DEAN
I think the switch went off when I did my first live, national news interview. It was with Newsmax… or Newsweek. I forget which one. I’ve done a lot of interviews.
SOMAN
Dean, those are two very different things!
DEAN
(laughs) Actually, it was Newsweek, I think. That’s really the moment that I realized that this could become a lot bigger than just me. And that’s made me realize that I should make the most of all of this. Let’s make sure that this leaves the biggest possible impact on people. Even if I win the election or I don’t, I want to help change the route of politics, at least in Vermont.
SOMAN
Art is such a parallel for life here, because you were living out the character’s story that I was writing on the page. The kind of character I wished would step up out there in the world. And here you are doing it! What have been the best parts of campaigning? And has it changed the way you think about things?
DEAN
There’s definitely a few stories that have been super interesting from this campaign. One is just the basic story of meeting people face to face at our local post office. Some of them recognize me from either the local newspaper or the news, and I get to seriously just talk with the local members of our community and learn what’s on their mind and what they think about politics.
It’s very rare for a kid to be able to sit down with the local members of your community and learn what’s going on and how you should try to fix it — and how they think that you should try to fix it. But what’s also cool is the fact that people are approaching me without me approaching them.
All of a sudden, I’m seeing kids at track meets coming up to me and asking for autographs or to take photos with me, and that’s starting to make me realize that I’m making a very big change in Vermont, and it’s a change that I love to see. And I’m really hoping that I’m inspiring these kids to also run for political office and create a bit of a movement that hopefully changes the way that politics is led.
Being on the news is also an incredible experience for me. Or something like this. I mean, currently I’m talking with an author. How many 15-year-olds seriously get to sit down and talk with a serious author about a book that you also sent to me?
It’s an experience that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life. And what I’ve also realized is I’ve become a lot better at talking with people due to this. I’ve realized that when I’m talking with friends or even with people who I don’t know, I’ve become a lot more confident.
I become a lot more vocal. I’ve been able to talk with them much longer. I’ve been able to talk about a lot of different kinds of things, things that I usually would not engage people in conversation with, and that is one of the other benefits of this. It’s giving me this learning experience of how to handle talking to people in real life. And yes, maybe sometimes I don’t want to talk with them. Sometimes all I want to do is just be quiet and just go away. But this is letting me learn how to deal with that. And it really is just helped me grow as a person in the social sense as well.
SOMAN
Every interview you’ve done, I’ve watched and there’s just such grown. Yeah. When did you first announce your candidacy?
DEAN
This was about six months ago. Yeah, it was in July.
SOMAN
Do you feel like you’ve changed a lot?
DEAN
Oh, God. Yeah. I mean, I know that not everyone wants to go down the route of politics, but I seriously think that everyone should try to put themselves out there as much as they possibly can at a young age, because it seriously helps you a ton with learning how to both learning how to be yourself and learning how you want to talk, but also learning how to just talk in general.
I mean, I understand that a lot of teenagers struggle with that. They struggle with social interactions, and probably one of the best ways to learn social interactions is to just go ahead and do it as much as you possibly can. And that’s what this campaign has given me a chance to do. So yeah, this is definitely resulted in me growing a lot as a person.
SOMAN
And the important thing is that the real win here isn’t being governor. It’s that you’ve shown what young people can do in your state. Candidates like you might spark the kind of youth third-party that the book envisions. In your mind, what does a Revolting Youth movement look like in the real world?
DEAN
I think there’s a lot of different ways to go about it. I think one of them would be eerily similar to the book, where they organize into a serious political movement and actually band behind this one candidate who becomes the big leader. But the other way to do it is to put up a lot of smaller-level candidates.
The important thing is that there might be no success in the first wave. That’s okay. But eventually, if more young people keep running, the movement will grow and grow. Smaller candidates will start finding success and they’ll move up the ladder to bigger positions, and soon you’ll have young people as serious contenders for the highest-level positions, both nationally and internationally.
I think the scenario of one young candidate rising nationally and forcing very fast change is more unlikely. We need to inspire a lot of young people to start their political careers. People who can attempt what I’ve done and what other youth candidates have done.
SOMAN
When is the next governor election after this one?
DEAN
Two years in Vermont.
SOMAN
So in two years, you run again. You’re 17. Everyone knows you. You’re older, you have more experience and you know more people. Then, by the time you’re 19 and can run again… you’re the old veteran. By then, you might be the most serious candidate out there.
DEAN
I know what you mean. Yeah. I mean, it’s kind of crazy to think that I’m going to leave this campaign as at least a somewhat experienced politician. I’m going to have a campaign under my belt, and I won’t even be 18 yet. By the time I’m 18, if I stay involved in politics, I will have a serious shot at some major, major elections.
And more importantly, by the time I’m 35, I’ll have much more experience. And then obviously there’s the big one to go for.
SOMAN
Yeah, though in my vision of things, we get rid of the age gate around the Presidency as quickly as possible, so people like you can run earlier.
Let’s talk about your teacher. In YOUNG WORLD, the teacher is a big character. And I know your teacher was a big character in your campaign. What do they think of everything that’s happened? And how involved are they now?
DEAN
I mean, my teacher is still very, very supportive of me. But he’s my old teacher now. So we don’t connect as much anymore. But every time I see him in the hallways, he always congratulates me. He’s been interviewed multiple times and he’s still staying somewhat involved — though not as much as you’d initially expect a campaign manager would be, but that’s obviously okay.
A lot of other teachers are still supporting me, and a lot of my friends are supporting me.
There is a lot more factors at play than truly just me. There’s a lot of people behind me and supporting me and who are really making this happen.
SOMAN
All right. Last two questions. How do you parents feel about this? Do you ever try to pull rank on them now that you’re a candidate for their governor?
DEAN
(laughs) I haven’t tried that yet. Maybe I will in the future, though. They’re pretty supportive of me, obviously. I mean, they’re the ones giving me a ride everywhere, so I need them. But they’re also maybe a bit shocked. Neither of them are super political, so maybe they didn’t exactly expect me to be running for office at just 14 or 15 years old, but they are still wildly supportive, probably my biggest two supporters that I have. And truly, this campaign could not work without them.
SOMAN
And my last question is, what can everyone do to support you? We all want to help you and not just for this election. I think you’re going to be a star of the future — and we might look back at you as the beginning of the real-life Revolting Youth. So what do you need for us?
DEAN
Just to tell other people about me. Tell your friends. Tell people who vote, especially if you’re in Vermont. And really just try to spread my message as much as you can. I don’t want money from you. I don’t want you to be a dedicated volunteer. I don’t want you to be going too far out of your way to spread my message.
But whenever you can mention me, just say — I heard this story about this 15-year-old who’s running for office in Vermont. And if have connections to anyone who could be of help to me, someone who’s a political insider or someone who knows a lot of people in Vermont, tell them about me.
Just put my name in there. You don’t have to do too much. That’s the important thing. All you really need to do is tell people about me, spread my message and just continue supporting me online. Continue doing what you’re doing right now.
SOMAN
I’m such a fan of yours, Dean. This was such a treat to get to talk to you.
DEAN
Yeah, the book was really good, by the way.
SOMAN
I’m glad you enjoyed it. Where should people follow you on Instagram?
DEAN
It’s just @deanroy_forgovernor
I also have a TikTok which is the same username.
SOMAN
Thanks, Dean. Good luck with the election!
----------
Until next week –
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.