Sean Shanley
Shanley is a recent Ball State alumnus and is running for District 28’s representative in the Statehouse.
To contact him, check out his campaign Facebook and Twitter.
Focusing on education and same-sex marriage, a 23-year-old Ball State alumnus has begun his race to the Statehouse.
Sean Shanley graduated from Ball State in Spring 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in music education and is the Democratic candidate for Indiana’s District 28.
During his time at Ball State, Shanley was involved in concert choir, chamber choir and the Statesmen choir, but no political organizations. But what Shanley lacks in political experience, he said he makes up for in passion.
“The main reason I’m running, and this may sound silly, is because I don’t think people should be running unopposed,” he said. “My opponent has been running unopposed for years, and I don’t like the idea of people just waltzing into office.”
District 28 includes 10 townships in Hendricks County and two townships in Boone County. Since 1998, Republican Jeff Thompson has represented the district, running unopposed ever since.
According to Indiana State Constitution Article 4, the qualifications to run for the Indiana House of Representatives are that candidates must be 21 when they take office, a citizen of the U.S., an Indiana resident for at least seven years and a district resident for at least one year.
Although not admittedly interested in politics, Shanley said he is focusing on two main issues during his campaign: educational policy and same-sex marriage.
“I think that this state and the country could really use a lot of upgrading and some revising,” he said of current educational policies. “People need to take a good hard look at what we have going on and how it can be fixed.”
Shanley said he has received positive feedback from the community so far, mainly from those who are also interested in education.
“They’re excited that someone who is currently in the system, fresh into the system, can give a little insight,” he said.
Thompson also is an advocate for education and a majority member of the education committee. Shanley said he understands that may pose as an obstacle for his campaign.
“I don’t understand why people can’t see it and don’t get on board with the fact that public schools are fundamentally important to society as a whole,” he said. “People don’t seem to care much.”
Another issue that is important to Shanley is same-sex marriage.
“As a gay man, I guess that gives me a little bit of a bias,” he said.
Don Ester, a professor of music education, was one of Shanley’s main instructors during his time at Ball State and has known him since the first day of classes his freshman year.
Although he is not surprised Shanley is running for office, he didn’t think it would be so soon.
“He’s a very intelligent young man,” Ester said. “He’s very thoughtful and has a really good demeanor for public service. He’s someone that will really listen to different people’s ideas. In that sense, I think he has a skill set that I would consider to be important in public service.”
Shanley ran unopposed in the 2014 primary elections and received 400 votes. He will run against Thompson in the Nov. 4 election.
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