Thomas Higdon was a politics fanatic his complete life: He saved up on the information cycle, he door-knocked for candidates, and he volunteered for quite a lot of campaigns.
He lengthy dreamed of working in authorities, however he and everybody round him felt it would not be potential due to his substance use. His use of alcohol and different medication started inflicting issues when he was in legislation college within the mid-Nineties, and in 2014, the implications of his substance use left him residing below an overpass. He’s now abstinent from the medication, however even years later, he felt he had ruined his possibilities of working for workplace.
“I allowed this internalized stigma, over a long time, to blind me to what I might actually do,” Higdon, now 52, informed CBS Information.
That thought stayed with him for years. He moved into grassroots organizing and advocacy areas, however in 2023, he discovered in regards to the Restoration Advocacy Challenge’s upcoming “Run for Restoration” program — and realized that working in public workplace would possibly nonetheless be potential.
Constructing a political bootcamp for folks in restoration
Courtney Gary-Allen, who started utilizing medication at a younger age and overdosed a number of instances earlier than getting sober in 2015, has efficiently run for workplace twice. In 2020, she was elected to the place of at-large Metropolis Councilor in Augusta, Maine. She was reelected to the identical position in 2023. Each instances, she received in a landslide, however the expertise made her understand the necessity for a marketing campaign bootcamp centered round folks in restoration. Comparable bootcamps are carried out by main political events, however she wished to create a bipartisan house tailor-made to the restoration group’s particular experiences and wishes.
“For the final decade or so, the restoration motion in America has been very targeted on telling our tales and advocating and pushing for higher coverage round substance use dysfunction and restoration efforts, and I believe it is a new chapter within the story of the restoration advocacy motion,” mentioned Gary-Allen, who can be the organizing director on the Maine Advocacy Restoration Challenge. “We’re now not simply advocating to policymakers. We’re working for workplace to change into the policymakers which are making choices round these points and plenty of extra.”
From that concept, Run for Restoration was born. This system graduated its inaugural class, made up of 5 Democrats, 5 Republicans, and 5 Independents, in August 2024. The 15 contributors had been chosen from throughout the nation. As soon as a month for a yr, they met on-line to speak the ins and outs of mounting a marketing campaign. Classes ranged from studying about finance legal guidelines to drafting place statements to getting ready to speak brazenly about their substance abuse.
Higdon was one of many chosen contributors. Though he had “been round campaigns all (his) life,” he mentioned the Run for Restoration class educated him in regards to the technicalities of working for workplace. But it surely wasn’t simply the classroom studying that impressed him. When he began the category, “there was nonetheless that form of nagging voice at the back of your head of ‘You’ll be able to’t run,'” Higdon mentioned. The time along with his classmates helped change his perspective.
“I simply can’t categorical how good it felt to be round individuals who additionally wished to do that factor,” Higdon mentioned. “There are a selection of the reason why I finally could not run, however worry of what folks will say and that stigma will not be one in every of them.”
Mobilize Restoration founder Ryan Hampton, who accomplished the Run for Restoration program and is campaigning for a seat in Nevada’s state meeting, mentioned that stigma has affected his marketing campaign. He mentioned his marketing campaign has been topic to assault adverts citing his historical past of substance use and calling his coverage positions to a “harmful drug agenda.”
Ryan Hampton
It is a annoying time, Hampton mentioned, however classes he is discovered all through his restoration journey and from the Run for Restoration program have helped him proceed his marketing campaign.
“I’m definitely the underdog on this race, however I am used to it,” Hampton mentioned. “Am I afraid of shedding an election? No, I’ve misplaced much more in my life than an election. I’m not afraid of shedding. I am working to win, however I am additionally working as a result of I consider our group is craving for one thing totally different.”
Rising a motion
There is no compiled checklist of each single particular person in restoration working for workplace. Gary-Allen mentioned she was conscious of a number of folks in restoration working for workplace in Maine. Higdon is weighing a run for a seat in Maryland’s state legislature. Racquel Garcia, a Run for Restoration graduate who holds an appointed place in Colorado, is contemplating a marketing campaign for a state place in 2026.
Courtney Gary-Allen
Gary-Allen mentioned she hopes to see extra of the Run for Restoration program graduates begin their very own campaigns — and see others in restoration, even individuals who did not undergo this system, make the soar into politics.
“I believe we’re on this cusp of a revelation. Not solely are folks in restoration voting and displaying up and advocating, we’re working for workplace, and we will serve in these seats,” Gary-Allen mentioned. “We’ll assist create options to substance use throughout the nation. I am excited for the subsequent couple of election seasons.”
