22-year-old woman runs for mayor in Ohio

“It’s really wild that it’s 2019 and Lancaster has yet to see a woman run for office, even a woman for mayor. But here I am.”

– Tiffany Piko, Good Morning America

Tiffany “Tiff” Piko, a 22-year-old woman who sells clothing online, ran for mayor in her hometown of Lancaster, Ohio. Although the recent college graduate had good intentions for her community, she was still considered very young and naive about the political world and how it works. What she wanted was a sustainable and inclusive community in her hometown, but Piko realized that it’s not very easy to achieve this. She was greeted with broken websites due to technology, people who didn’t want to answer her when she came to their doorstep, endless tough questions for the citizens in Lancaster, and lots of paperwork.

Running for mayor is no easy feat, but Piko dealt with it. She faced a fierce opponent, Republican David Scheffler, who was advocating for the typical things that citizens wanted. Piko also faced a lot of backlash and comments from the news of her running for mayor. She received many comments that no other man running for mayor ever encountered. This included whether she was going to take away guns, if she was against abortion, or if she was gay. The main reason why she received a lot of this push back was because Piko had different ideas from what people from Lancaster are used to. People reminded her she stood no chance, but she kept going towards her goal.

Unfortunately, on election night on November 5, 2019, Tiffany Piko lost to David Scheffler, who gained 72% of the votes, leaving Piko with 28%. Although she did not win the election, Tiffany gained a lot of support from her community and it was the first time that a woman has run for mayor. Ultimately, her goal was to not just get the position as mayor; she wanted to inspire women around the world to enter the world of politics.