Involving Your Family and Faith When Running for Office

06 Jul Involving Your Family and Faith When Running for Office

For many Latter-day Saint women who are considering a run for public office, one of the first questions that surfaces is not about strategy or fundraising or messaging — it is something far more personal: What will this do to my family? What about my faith?

These are the right questions to ask. And the answers from women who have actually walked this path may surprise you.

Your Family Can Be Part of the Campaign

It makes sense to want to protect your family from the more difficult aspects of a campaign — the criticism, the long hours, the unpredictability. Those concerns are valid. But many women who have run for office while raising families share something unexpected: the campaign became a meaningful shared experience, not a source of division.

Running for office gives your family a front-row seat to civic courage. Children who help knock on doors, wave signs at a honk-and-wave, or attend a campaign event are learning what it looks like when the people they love decide that their community is worth fighting for.

And there is a practical benefit too. Karen Peterson, a Utah State Representative, describes children not as a liability on the campaign trail — but as one of its greatest assets:

“Sometimes we think having small kids is a liability to running for office, when I would argue that it’s an asset because what you want to talk about when you’re running for office is the future of your community. And what a better visual than the fact that you care about the future of your community because you’re raising your family in that community?”

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— Karen Peterson, Utah State Representative

Strangers who might be skeptical of a candidate at the door often open up when a child enthusiastically says, “Vote for my mom!” The authenticity of a parent running because they genuinely care about the place their children are growing up — that resonates.

What About the Criticism?

Some Latter-day Saint women who have run for office have encountered criticism from well-meaning people who questioned whether a mother should be on the campaign trail instead of home with her children. It is a real dynamic, and it is worth acknowledging honestly.

But many of those same women have had meaningful conversations because of those moments — explaining that they are running because they have children, because they care deeply about the community those children are growing up in, and because they want to leave that community better than they found it.

The criticism, when it comes, does not have to be a dead end. It can be an opening.

A Campaign Can Strengthen Your Marriage

For Debby Lauret, running for the Orem City Council while married meant bringing her husband fully into the experience — and the impact on their relationship was profound:

“My love for my husband deepened and I’ll tell you why. He walked neighborhoods with me hour after hour after hour after hour because it was a dream of mine and he helped me fulfill it. I will love him forever for doing that for me and he’s done it three times…it was a binding thing because he was helping me live my dream.”

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— Debby Lauret, Orem City Council

A campaign is hard work. But shared hard work has a way of deepening bonds. When your family joins you in something that matters, it creates memories and a sense of shared purpose that outlasts the election itself.

Your Faith Is a Strength, Not a Complication

Running for office as a person of faith raises its own questions. How do you share your values without alienating voters? How do you navigate a pluralistic electorate as someone with strong religious convictions?

First, know this: your faith does not disqualify you — it equips you. The values you have developed through years of service, prayer, and community are exactly the kind of grounding that makes for principled, effective public servants.

How openly you speak about your faith is a personal decision — one that will depend on your community, your race, and your own comfort. But you do not have to choose between your testimony and your candidacy. Many women have found that their faith has been a source of clarity and strength throughout the campaign — something to lean on when the noise gets loud.

“I feel that this is something that I’m supposed to be doing, that the Lord is pleased with my service. I can answer to God in a way that really does let me zone out the fuzz and the static of everybody else.”

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— Elizabeth Harmer Dionne, Belmont Town Meeting Member

Turning to God Throughout the Process

Whatever your community looks like — whether your faith is well-known and respected or more of a personal private matter — know that you can turn to God throughout your campaign. A righteous desire to serve and bless your neighbors is not something God is indifferent to. Many women who have run for office testify that their faith deepened through the process, not despite the difficulty of the campaign, but because of it.

Running for office is not a departure from your values. It can be one of the fullest expressions of them.

You Do Not Have to Do This Alone

If you are wondering what this path looks like for someone with a family and a faith like yours, the best thing you can do is talk to women who have already walked it. They will tell you what no one else can: what it actually felt like, what they wish they had known, and why most of them say it was worth it.

Project Elect exists to make those connections possible. We pair women who are exploring public service with Latter-day Saint women who have run for office and are ready to share what they have learned.

Reach out to us at projectelectwomen.org or fill out our JOIN US form — we would love to walk this path with you.