There are lot of problems. The biggest is funding.

Most politicians come from money. Not all, but a good number. This, oddly enough, can make them a bit more independent since they don’t have special interests demanding their time to get their money. But depending on their motives for running, this can also make them very susceptible to corruption to make their money back.

If you don’t have money, you have to raise it. You can either do this by meeting with special interests (oil, pharma, etc.) and be their lapdog or you can solicit money from the public. Both have their pros and cons in terms of getting elected, staying elected, and making sure you can do the work you set out to do.

Let’s assume you have money and it’s untainted.

The second biggest problem you have is name recognition. If you are a nobody, no one is going to elect you. You have to earn name recognition by either winning several smaller elections, by being active in the community, or by being famous. Usually if your rich, you have name recognition so you can usually skip this step. But if you’re not, and you’re raising money the old fashion way, you need to get your name out there. You remember Joe Exotic? You know him because he ran a ridiculous campaign.

Let’s assume that you’re active in the community and you have pretty good name recognition.

The hardest hurdle is going to be that you have almost half of your electorate actively rooting against you.

IMO, the reason why you don’t see many young people in politics, even at the local level, is because all three of these steps seem so insurmountable. I looked into it. I never formed a committee or anything but the amount of money alone you have to raise is crazy.

You need a thick skin and you need to be willing to compromise, either your morals or your values, often both.