Eastern Kentucky teenager is youngest to ever win election in the state

A budding political career can begin in the garden.

Just ask 16-year-old Logan Sizemore — who this week was elected to the Leslie County Soil and Water Conservation District board, making him the youngest-ever person to serve in elected office in state history.

“Growing a garden has also grown my interest in wanting to help the community,” Sizemore told the Herald-Leader Friday.

For nearly four years, the now-high school sophomore has tended an ever-growing vegetable garden. During the pandemic, with local restaurants struggling to stay afloat, Sizemore decided to grow extra veggies and donate them to mom and pop shops in Leslie County.

That interest in wanting to help the community turned into the teenager considering running for local office, said Laura Sizemore, Logan’s mother. After a bit of research on the Kentucky Secretary of State website, Logan found there was no age requirement to run for one of the three open positions on the county soil and conservation board.

“I was behind him 100 percent,” Laura said. “Me and his dad both were just a little scared at first. I kind of, in a way tried to talk him out of it you know like, ‘Do you really want to do this?’”

Logan showed that he did. His parents own a small business in town, he said, and when folks would come in, Logan would ask them for their support.

“If I knew them I would ask respectfully for them to vote for me if they weren’t obliged to anybody,” Logan said.

He also got to work putting up signs, making sure his name was all over the community.

“Soil and water conservation is something he’s really, really passionate about,” said Mark Collett, the assistant principal at Leslie County High School. “So he immediately got out and started putting up the signs, he started going door to door and had some t-shirts made.”

The role of a soil and water conservation supervisor is to develop and preserve an area’s natural resources, Logan explained, a leadership role that is right up his alley. Aside from school, a 4-H teen leadership group and track and cross country practices, Logan has been working hard to get a local Future Farmers of America program started in Leslie County.

Collet said Logan is hard-working and a great leader already. Both the assistant principal and his mom say that the 16-year-old is incredibly mature for his age.

“He’s an old soul. We say all the time that he’s a 50 year old in a 16 year old’s body. Just a good kid,” Laura said, adding that Logan is a big bookreader and doesn’t have or want a cell phone.

In the election, Logan was vying for one of three open spots in a four-candidate race. On election night, he said he was nervous he wouldn’t get enough votes to make the board. But watching the results roll in at the county courthouse, Logan and his family got a pleasant surprise.

“Logan pretty much carried every precinct in the county,” Laura said.

The teenager garnered 1,366 votes, the most of any candidate running for the board. Logan followed in the footsteps of Landin Stadnyk, who as a 17-year-old in 2020 won a seat on the Scott County Conservation District Board. Stadnyk, at the time, was the youngest to win the title.

WYMT reported that a Kentucky Secretary of State spokesperson confirmed that the 16-year-old Logan is the youngest person in the state to hold elected office. Logan said he didn’t know he would be the youngest when he filed.

With a seat on the board, Logan said he wants to provide more opportunities for young people to engage with agriculture and the land, like with his efforts to start an FFA program. He also wants to get water samples to test the health of local water sources.

“Just simple things like that to give people my age an opportunity,” Logan said.

Laura said she’s “so proud” of her son and she’s thankful for so much support from the community, adding that there hasn’t been pushback against Logan because of his age.

“We’re just thankful to live where we live,” Laura said. “Just because everybody does rally around you.”

Asked if he had other political offices in his future, Logan said he’s “going to take it one step at a time,” but if he doesn’t outgrow his interest in politics, he would consider a run to be a local magistrate one day.