Illinois State Representative and Hillsdale alum Tom Morrison ‘97 urged Hillsdale students to get involved in local government in a Feb. 3 talk hosted by Citizens for Self-Governance.
“An advantage of going to Hillsdale and getting a good liberal-arts education is what really prepares you to do a lot of different things,” he said.
Morrison himself had a less-than-traditional path to civic leadership.
“When I first ran for office, I was running a cleaning business,” he said.
He decided to run for office because the Illinois state government was planning to raise taxes, and as a business owner, he was concerned about the issue.
“Local and state governments have a way bigger impact on your day-to-day life,” Morrison said.
Junior Conner Bolanos, who organized the talk, agreed with Morrison that local government is incredibly important.
“Here at Hillsdale, and in the country at large, much of the focus of the media and academia is on the federal government and federal politics. Many students here at Hillsdale also place great emphasis on getting involved in federal politics as a career,” he said. “Yet, as Morrison explained, it is local government, like school boards, library districts, and state governments, that have the most impact on one’s day to day life, affecting everything from property taxes to public school curriculum to building ordinances.”
According to Morrison, in state and local government, every vote counts.
“In the last few elections, I’ve won by very, very narrow margins,” he said. “In 2018, I won my election by 43 votes.”
To ensure as many votes as possible, Morrison said, it’s essential to actually talk to people and listen to their concerns.
“Every year, I would personally talk to thousands and thousands of residents, calling them back, or texting them, or responding personally to their emails,” he said.
In fact, with this strategy, Morrison said he was able to change the minds of several constituents that usually voted Democrat.
“Because I showed them that personal touch on voter issues, they would end up voting for me,” he said.
During the Q&A portion of the talk, junior Noah Schleusener, a member of Citizens for Self-Governance, said that while he wasn’t interested in getting involved in federal or state government, he wanted to know more about local politics.
“The one downside to local government is that these are typically volunteer positions or have a very, very nominal salary,” Morrison said. “You could be working 15, 20, 30 hours a week at times, but it is so important.”
Morrison said one of the primary issues concerning local governments right now is the issue of school board elections.
“Some of the curriculum that’s being pushed onto young people, it’s propaganda, it’s brainwashing,” he said. “People of good character should run for these positions, because you’re really making a massive impact on the next generation.”
Bolanos said as a result of the talk, he more fully grasped the importance of local government not only in people’s daily lives, but in the country at large.
“The federal government in many ways does not decide the curriculum of your state or town’s schools, it is local school boards consisting of parents or state legislatures consisting of local residents,” he said. “By becoming involved with, or even running, in local government, individuals are able to make great impacts on the lives of those within their communities and best express their right to self-governance.”
According to Morrison, the best way to set yourself up for success in politics is to be tough while keeping your ultimate goal in mind.
“You just have to go into it with your eyes wide open, and have a thick skin, but just know that you’re doing very,very important work,” he said.
