At 18, not only can marketing freshman Malcolm Dunn register to vote, he can also run for local political office — and he plans to do just that.
Dunn hopes to run for the vacant District 12 seat on the Baton Rouge Metro Council. The Luling, Louisiana native said his platform involves everything from the halting of price inflation to the legalization of marijuana.
While working at a grocery store during the summer, Dunn said he was shocked to learn how many people in his community were on food stamps.
“I just feel like [the] government doesn’t help people enough,” he said. “I feel like they need more programs to help out people like that.”
Dunn said one of his ideas is the Reaux Plan, an initiative that would promote compromise within the bipartisan Council. The art of compromise has been lost over time, he said.
Through the Reaux Plan, Dunn said he would implement measures to solve “the inflation problem” plaguing the state. He said the Council needs to work together to cure the economic ills causing prices to rise constantly.
“Once something’s too big, it pops,” Dunn said.
Other than inflation, the Metro Council hopeful places another priority at the top of his agenda: the legalization and taxation of marijuana.
Citing the usual price drop that comes with marijuana legalization, Dunn said he would create a 25 percent sales tax on the product. He said he does not think customers would mind the sizable tax because it balances out with what its original price would have been.
Dunn said he thinks providing governmental access to the drug would “calm the world out a lot.” While he conceded recreational marijuana use might make citizens lazier, he said he believes it would significantly decrease the crime rate.
He said he hopes to defy the stereotype of marijuana as a “gateway drug.”
“You could say the same thing about alcohol being a gateway drug,” Dunn said. “Any drug is a gateway drug.”
Since he first heard news of Dunn’s interest in membership, District 11 Council member Ryan Heck said he thinks it is excellent the University student is running for office. Though unusual in this day and age, Heck said it is not unprecedented for young citizens to act upon political aspirations.
Heck said he believes voter apathy causes a lack of participation from the millennial demographic. After serving a long term as the youngest Council member, he said he anticipates a youthful energy having “a seat at the table.”
Though Dunn plans to run on an independent platform, Heck said the Metro Council does not harp on party affiliations. Rather, they work to “get stuff done,” he said.
“I think a lot of that partisanship doesn’t really exist,” he said. “I can tell you, behind closed doors, it doesn’t, at least on the local level.”
In regard to Dunn’s stance on marijuana, Heck said he comes from the “very libertarian” sector of the Republican Party, which is neither for or against marijuana.
If Dunn fills the District 12 vacancy on election day, he said he will remain in college to finish his marketing degree so he can continue learning how to promote himself. His next step would involve running for mayor.
Dunn said he believes he has a chance at success.
“If I surround myself with people who can help me, we could make anything happen,” he said.