# Why Young People Aren't Interested in Running for Office **URL:** **By** Jennifer L. Lawless, Aaron Ross Powell, Trevor Burrus **Published:** September 18, 2015 --- Jennifer L. Lawless joins us for a discussion about why young people in America seem to be almost wholly uninterested in running for electoral office. In a new survey of over 4,000 young Americans, Jennifer L. Lawless and Richard L. Fox have found that only 19% of respondents indicated that one of their future goals was to become a political leader. Why are these young people not interested in running for office? Will they change their mind later in life? **Show Notes and Further Reading** Jennifer L. Lawless and Richard L. Fox's 2015 book on this phenomenon, _[Running from Office: Why Young Americans are Turned Off to Politics](http://www.amazon.com/Running-Office-Americans-Turned-Politics/dp/0199397651)._ The [New Books in Political Science](http://newbooksinpoliticalscience.com/) podcast—as its name implies—is a great source of information on current trends in political science.