This September, nearly 200,000 undergraduate students will be enrolled full-time at a Minnesota college or university. This November, 268 Minnesota residents will run for state legislature. One person will do both.

On Election Day, St. Thomas junior Riley Horan’s name will be on the state ballot to represent District 64A in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Horan said it started at this year’s caucus, where he participated and left as a delegate for the Republican district convention.

“At the district convention, everyone gave a 30 second speech on why they wanted to be a state delegate,” Horan said. “I think there were 20 spots, and I tied with like three other people for the last spot, so they had to pull a name out of a hat and it was mine. And so I became a state delegate.”

After the state convention, Horan said he received a phone call from a high-ranking Minnesota representative, who told him he should run for state legislature. He added that running for the state house never really crossed his mind, but after thinking about it he found himself asking, “Why not?”

To be eligible for Minnesota House of Representatives or the Senate, candidates must be at least 21 years old on Election Day. Horan meets the requirement by just under a month.

When asked if he thinks he’ll be treated differently than other candidates because of his age, Horan’s answer was immediate.

“Yes, I do,” he said, laughing. “When I ran for national delegate, I got to the convention and had to get 40 signatures … The first guy I went up to, I said, ‘I’m running to be a national delegate. Would you be interested in signing?’ And he was like, ‘Do you really think you have a shot at this?’ I said ‘Yeah,’ and he said, ‘There’s no way.’”

While Horan noted that this particular instance was extreme, he said he has already noticed a general difference in treatment between himself and his fellow candidates, all of whom are older.

Rather than working around it, however, Horan and his campaign team have decided to embrace his outlying age, as he doesn’t think stereotypical politician traits aren’t as important to the public as they used to be.

“I think people are starting to want good people with good ideas that are honest and just have common sense,” Horan said, “and I’m just a common sense guy. I don’t take many radical views. I’m just a college kid, so I think it will play an advantage even though people treat me differently.”

And he isn’t simply utilizing his uniqueness in his campaign slogan, “The Future is Here.” Horan’s campaign team is also comprised completely of St. Thomas students.

JB Stender, Eric Swenson, Sam Sheldon, Vince Ternes, Lauren Petersen and Robbie Ware make up Horan’s campaign team. While the group lacks the typical political experience, Horan explained that there are definitely advantages to working with some of your peers.

“It’s literally people in my closest group of friends,” Horan said. “They know who I am and know what I want. It’s just easy because they know my personality.”

“The part for me that’s been awesome is they are just as excited about all of it as I am,” Horan added.

Stender, Horan’s campaign manager and chairman, said joining the campaign team was a no brainer.

“Riley and I are best friends, so as soon as I heard he was gonna run, I wanted to help out as much as I could,” Stender said.

He added that each team member’s unique skills made forming the team quite easy.

“None of us have overlapping majors, so that really helped our team fall into place,” Stender said.

In preliminary meetings, Stender said they focused a lot on the campaign website, Horan’s statements and other aspects of the campaign that would directly reach the public eye. Stender and Horan agreed that the team’s lack of experience brought a degree of uncertainty while making some initial decisions, but they make up for the deficit with efficient teamwork.

In addition to the challenges the team faces because of their age, Horan’s opponent is another they must face. Erin Murphy, the incumbent of District 64A representing the DFL party, is running for her sixth term in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

“She’s pretty well liked on her side,” Horan said. “She wants to run for governor in 2018.”

For now, the team is focusing on fundraising and marketing as much as they can before the school year begins and their schedules become fuller.

Horan isn’t sure where this campaign will lead him, but said he wanted to seize the opportunity while it was available.

“I might not get this opportunity again,” Horan said. “I can make it work with my schedule, so why not do it? So that’s why I do it now.”

Lauren Andrego can be reached at lauren.andrego@stthomas.edu.