March 27, 2026 10:08 AM UTC

At Least He's Not Your 14-Year-Old Gubernatorial Candidate

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• by: Colorado Pols

This is either one of the craziest political stories we’ve seen this year or the perfect example of our current upside-down world.

As Amanda Swinhart of The Associated Press reports with a fantastic lede:

Looking back, gubernatorial candidate Dean Roy says his political ambitions started in the eighth grade. And by that he means, last year.

After working as a legislative page at the Vermont Statehouse, the 14-year-old freshman at Stowe High School now has his sights set on the corner office. In November, he’ll be the first candidate for governor under age 18 to appear on the state’s general election ballot.

“I don’t expect necessarily to win,” he said. “What I do expect is to start the movement, and get more young people to come in behind me and say, ‘Yeah, we also want to make change.’”…

…Roy, who said he doesn’t identify with either major party, said housing is the most important issue facing the state. He’s also thought about how he’d juggle school with a full-time job as governor, saying he’d consider online classes and would do his homework at night after work. [Pols emphasis]

Two things can be true here: It’s cool that Dean Roy is involved enough at such a young age to even consider running for governor. It’s also completely crazy that this is even possible.

And how, exactly, is this possible? Unlike most states, Vermont has no official minimum age requirement for gubernatorial candidates — only a mandate that a candidate must reside in the state for at least four years prior to launching a campaign (the minimum age in Colorado is 30). Roy made the General Election ballot by creating his own third party, called the Freedom and Unity party, and he doesn’t think there is any issue with his age.

“What I’m aiming for is that these career politicians look at me and they say, ‘Oh my God, he actually has a chance to disrupt things,’” he said. “If I can get people to think that I am a threat to them, then I know that’s been a success. Because what I want is to show them that the youth have a voice. We’re gonna make change. The future is now.”

We don’t know a lot about Vermont, but we’re guessing that Roy is not a threat to any of the other gubernatorial candidates in 2026. That’s probably for the best; we’re not ready for a future where the governor of a state misses a bill signing deadline because he couldn’t find a ride to the State Capitol.