Crystal Good—Charleston’s poet, artist, model, mother, “Affrilachian” Twitter personality—wants your vote. Not in 2016. Now.
Good launched a campaign today for an office of her own making. She’s running for “Social Media Senator for the Digital District of West Virginia.”
Voting begins today and runs until April 2 on her Facebook page. In order to win the election, Good’s goal is to get at least one “vote” from every county in West Virginia, plus some ex-pats.
Good sees the made-up office as a way to connect the conversations West Virginians are having on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere online with the policymaking process in the brick-and-mortar, flesh-and-blood world.
She’s still trying to figure out how that might work. But if “elected,” Good says she will serve as a mouthpiece for the desires of her constituents.
“I’ll take your ideas to the decision makers and use social media to show you whether or not they listen and take action,” she says in her campaign video. “I’ll be your mouthpiece, your megaphone, your soapbox to stand on.”
Her campaign was inspired, in part, by last year’s elections and the recent legislative session.
“Republican versus Democrat seems to be the only conversation we’re in. I feel that can be very distracting.”
Good says she saw very little talk from lawmakers about concrete ways to improve the state—but there was plenty of buzz on social media channels.
“This is where people are coming together and are happening…but how can we use this meeting space to encourage a greater civic dialogue? How can we create a place for what I’m calling the silent majority—folks that are talking about issues that are maybe not engaged with the traditional process, for whatever reason?” she says.
“We need to a congress of ideas.”
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