A new report reveals the struggles of holding public office — and we have to figure out a way to ease potential legislators’ anxiety

I remember arriving in Olympia, Wash., to begin my service as a state representative in January 2011. My senior colleague, then-Rep. Kevin Parker from Spokane, made a comment I would carry with me through the next decade of legislative service. He pointed to the class photos of previous legislators that lined the hallways above the House chamber, most of whom I couldn’t even recognize, and said to me, “We only hold these seats temporarily.”

His point was not to diminish the importance of service. Quite the contrary.

When any of us, especially in government and public service, grow tempted to think less of the work at hand, we can find inspiration in recognizing that the institutions we serve began long before us, and with our efforts might go on long after. This is essential wisdom for anyone who would take on the hard and noble work of service in a legislative body.  

But there is reason to be concerned for the future of our state legislatures.

Earlier this month, a national bipartisan network of Gen Z and Millennial state legislators called Future Caucus released a report entitled “The Exit Interview: Why Decent People are Struggling to Serve in Public Office.” The report found that legislators are concerned about physical safety for themselves and their families, lack of staff and technological resources to make the most of legislative service, and difficulty in navigating legislative life with its crowded schedules, partisan divisions and dearth of formal preparation. In addition, young lawmakers said that the commitment to public service is financially difficult to sustain. 

Legislators who took part in the Future Caucus surveys spoke of their anxiety over rising political violence and toxic polarization. They described the challenges of balancing other employment as part-time legislators, or with juggling parenthood and public service. Some are thinking of leaving legislative service.

According to Reed Howard, Chief Strategy and Public Affairs Officer for Future Caucus, there is a “retention crisis among our best leaders.”

Why should Americans care if our state legislatures are attracting and retaining quality leaders?  Because this kind of service is at the heart of a functioning representative democracy. Those who are elected to legislative bodies take on themselves the task of representation — serving as a visible delegate of the public trust, conducting their lives according to the institutional requirements and norms of constitutional process, and committing their time and reputation to the hard work of choosing policies on behalf of their family, friends and neighbors. 

In office, legislative life is a symphony of human interaction — one in which a legislator’s days are filled with constituent emails and meetings, visits with colleagues, agency representatives, legislative staff and community group representatives of all kinds. A day in the life of a legislator include engagements with longshoremen, teachers, shop owners, motorcycle riders, college students, realtors, truckers, political party loyalists, political party critics and election reformers. 

The composite of these interactions simultaneously gives backing to the decisions a legislator makes while adding to the sense of their complexity. A legislator learns the heartaches and hopes of their fellow citizens, and they encounter the equally profound convictions of people who stand opposed to one another in the halls of public deliberation; but they learn, after all, that extraordinary victories can happen when people commit to working together. This is the substance of constitutional democracy and the core of America’s experiment in self-government. 

I can think of example after example, all of them bipartisan, all of them requiring extraordinary teamwork: addressing a multi-billion dollar court mandate to fully fund basic K-12 education, reducing college tuition, passing the largest transportation investment package in state history accompanied by reforms to make transportation projects more efficient, and enacting a landmark paid family law. 

The writers of the Federalist Papers believed in our human capacity for “good government from reflection and choice,” not just from “accident and force.” Later, when Abraham Lincoln, then an Illinois State Representative, spoke to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Ill., in 1838, his topic was “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.” He spoke out then against political violence and disregard for the rule of law as a threat to America’s institutions. 

These warnings are just as relevant for our own time as they were in 1838.

Last year’s senseless and horrific killing of Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, along with the shooting of State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, and all who have been victims of political violence, should serve as a wake-up call to all of us about the need to honor and maintain the dignity of constitutional self-government in our own time.

We must do all we can to build faith in our legislative bodies as mediating and problem-solving institutions, and to make them attractive venues for citizens of diverse backgrounds, and viewpoints to invest time and talent.

The Future Caucus report offers a menu of policy changes — like more robust and nonpartisan orientations for new legislators, investment in legislative staffing, delegation of legislative salary decisions to independent commissions, and more opportunities for legislators to socialize together — that could enhance the experience of serving in a state legislature and improve the functionality of our legislative institutions. 

Self-government requires orderly deliberation, a willingness to deal with people with whom we disagree, and a determined cultivation of public virtues like tolerance, civility and mutual respect. If there is anything we must strive for in our free society, it is to recover the capacity for legislative life. 

Hans Zeiger is president of the Jack Miller Center, an educational venture to advance the history, documents and ideals we hold in common as Americans. He served in the Washington State House of Representatives from 2011-2016 and the Washington State Senate from 2017-2020.