By KEVIN REAGAN Staff Writer | Casa Grande Dispatch
CASA GRANDE — Twenty-one-year-old Gilberto Mendez used to think that politics was reserved for older people.
Then he enrolled in the city of Casa Grande’s Leadership Academy and discovered he met the age requirement to be elected to City Council. The Arizona State University student got to thinking and realized perhaps it was time for a younger candidate to sit on the council.
“I feel like a lot of people normally think that youth don’t get involved in politics,” he said.
Mendez wants to shift that mindset, so he filed paperwork recently with the city to declare his campaign for City Council. He is among nine prospective candidates seeking to fill one of three council seats open this election year.
2016 has already been an exciting year for politics on a national level, he said, so he hopes to energize youth to get involved on a local level.
“This is a good time to be alive, so many young people are getting involved,” Mendez said. “Young people have a voice now.”