Teenage candidate shares his experience running for local council

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

A teenager has given an insight into his first time standing as a candidate in a council election – and finishing last.

University student Chase Blount stood for the Welsh Conservatives in a by-election called as a result of Reform UK councillor David Thomas being removed from a local council for failing to attend meetings for six months.

In an article for the Conservative Home website the 19-year-old candidate has recounted his experiences of putting his name forward and ultimate rejection by local voters who elected Reform candidate Stephen Whitehorn in a landslide.

In the article the teenage candidate noted the irony of Reform’s convincing victory in a by-election called, at an estimated cost of £10,000 to local taxpayers in Cwmbran, due to the failure of the party’s previous representative for the Two Locks ward to attend Cwmbran Community Council’s meetings.

He wrote: “Not only did he take his voters for granted, but he also cost the taxpayers around £10,000! Imagine the potholes that could be filled with that sum! How wrong was I, though? Reform won by a landslide.”

In the article, headlined, ‘My first election was a car crash – but I still gained from it’, Mr Blount described the election result as “humiliating”, including finishing with just 22 votes which was 54 behind the fourth placed Liberal Democrats. Reform’s Mr Whitehorn was elected with 290 votes which was just four less than the other four parties combined.

But the University of Bath politics and economics student, from Old Cwmbran, said even finishing bottom of the pile he left the counting centre “feeling happier” than when he arrived as he realised there were “many benefits” gained from being a first-time candidate and for a “future run”.

Mr Blount told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he didn’t think being a student, an hour’s drive and 45 miles away in Bath, had counted against him: “I’m not too sure if residents did care about me still being at uni since the meetings are only once a week and can be held online. And despite the last Reform councillor being removed for inactivity, Reform still made a gain.”

Cwmbran has been a Labour stronghold, with all the other councillors on the community council from the party, and Mr Blount felt Reform’s national profile aided it in the local election.

“I think people are fed up with Labour in Wales, and with Reform’s strong national campaign game and strong social media presence, they have managed to perform so well.”

Cllr Thomas, who was elected to the volunteer community council role in a September 2023 by-election as an independent, remains a member of Torfaen Borough Council where he is the leader of the Reform group, and is also the party’s director for Wales.

On social media he hit back at the young candidate’s surprise at losing to Reform.

Cllr Thomas said though he hadn’t attended meetings, which he dismissed as “pointless”, he had continued to work in the community, which he said had paid off at the by-election in February.

He wrote on X: “Can you really not understand why we stormed to victory, Chase? I was out working hard on the ground for the residents in Two Locks & Hollybush Ward. Doing the casework and fixing their problems. People value real action, not politicians sitting in pointless 20 minute community council meetings. And our results showed what a hard working community councillor can really do.”

You can read Chase’s original article here.