{"id":1685,"date":"2024-11-11T14:47:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T22:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2024-11-11T14:47:58","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T22:47:58","slug":"they-called-me-a-murderer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/2024\/11\/11\/they-called-me-a-murderer-2\/","title":{"rendered":"18 and Ambitious\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
Saul Galvan<\/div>\n\n\n

Jesse Maldonado pushed boundaries and made political history in Idaho.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have done it if I didn’t think I could at least come close,\u201d Jesse Maldonado said. In 2013, Maldonado ran for city council in Lewiston, Idaho, at the age of 18. Fresh out of high school and with minimal political experience, he thought, \u201cWhy the hell not? Why not me?\u201d Even his mother thought he would lose, he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maldonado proved everyone wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in a predominantly white community, Maldonado, then 13, was inspired during the 2008 presidential election by national figures such as Barack Obama and Governor Bill Richardson. \u201cWatching these minorities compete in this race as a minority myself was very inspiring,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012, Maldonado participated in his first campaign, volunteering for John Rushie during the Idaho District 6 State Legislature election. During the election, Maldonado grew close with Rushie\u2019s campaign manager, Trae Turner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two formed a bond that led to Turner running Maldonado\u2019s campaign for city council. \u201cWe joked that he was always an old soul\u2026he had his eyes on a bigger picture, even at a young age,\u201d said Turner. But Turner was not the only reason Maldonado ran for city council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Rushie\u2019s campaign in 2012, the Idaho Democratic Party made a statewide push to get local cities to pass non-discrimination ordinances. Lewiston\u2019s city council voed the ordinance down.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe city councilors were afraid to do it. We knew we were never going to get it passed with the current city council,\u201d said Turner. Maldonado heard the call for change and answered with his \u201cwhy the hell not\u201d attitude. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, Maldonado launched his campaign for city council. He ran with a promise to voters to pass the ordinance if elected. Though Maldonado\u2019s age was a concern for voters in that election, he said ironically, it helped out his campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was very lucky to be 18. I was the lead of every story,\u201d said Maldonado. Voters were curious, which meant free press, he said. Maldonado campaigned door to door as well as via social media, something other candidates weren\u2019t using, he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maldonado was one of eight candidates running in an election to fill four seats. He said he won the fourth seat by more than 300 votes, beating out a sitting mayor, a current city councilman, and a former fire chief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things Maldonado thought Lewiston voters liked about him was that he was \u201cnormal.\u201d \u201cIf somebody ever asked me a question, I didn\u2019t know, I would say I don\u2019t know\u2026I wasn\u2019t trying to play the politician,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maldonado made good on his campaign promise. In 2014, the Lewiston City Council approved a non-discrimination ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender with housing, employment, and public accommodations, according to Boise State Public Radio News<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took over ten months for the ordinance to pass. Maldonado said he realized there was more to politics than what was displayed on TV shows such as \u201cWest Wing.\u201d \u201cThere was so much more monotony and frankly boring stuff\u2026things are slower than I thought they would be,\u201d Maldonado said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He served one term that ended in January while attending Lewis-Clark State College. Maldonado said he never planned to run for re-election. In 2023, he received his master\u2019s degree in public administration from the University of Oregon. Maldonado currently serves as the fundraising chair for the Democratic Party of Lane County. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesse Maldonado pushed boundaries and made political history in Idaho. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have done it if I didn’t think I could at least come close,\u201d Jesse Maldonado said. In 2013, Maldonado ran for city council in Lewiston, Idaho, at the age of 18. Fresh out of high school and with minimal political experience, he thought, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","pmpro_default_level":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"top_category":[],"class_list":["post-1685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-profiles","pmpro-has-access"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Saul Galvan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/author\/saul-galvan\/"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1685"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1689,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions\/1689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1685"},{"taxonomy":"top_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oregonjournalismlab.org\/Election24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/top_category?post=1685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}