SMU student has big plans as DeSoto school board's youngest member ever
Political Science major Warren Seay Jr. is the newest - and youngest ever - member of the DeSoto School Board.
By JEFF MOSIER
The Dallas Morning News
The biggest elections Warren Seay Jr. won before Saturday were held at his high school and later his college fraternity house.
 Warren Seay Jr. |
Now, the 20-year-old student at Southern Methodist University has taken a significant step up politically as DeSoto's newest school board member. Seay, a 2006 DeSoto High School graduate, won the seat in a landslide against the kind of opposition that usually prevails in these races: a public-school teacher and a college instructor.
"What we saw last night was an affirmation from the community that we're ready for a new voice," Seay said Sunday. "We're ready for new ideas and new energy."
In about three years, Seay went from senior class president to an ambitious college student pondering a run for office. In less than two months, he went from a hopeful candidate with a $5 donation to Saturday night's election to a place in the school district leadership ranks.
Seay now is the youngest school trustee in DeSoto history. The Texas record for youngest was a 19-year-old in Lumberton, just north of Beaumont.
Seay, a senior majoring in political science and public policy, received about 73 percent of the votes cast in a race to replace retiring trustee Don McKinley.
Nearly young enough to be the son of one opponent and grandson of another, Seay said he worried that voters might not take him seriously. He said there was a danger he could be perceived as too inexperienced or as someone simply running as a school project.
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