Editor’s Note: a guest post by Trish LeLeux, a Republican who ran for the Louisiana legislature in 2023.

We say it all the time: we need better people in office. More integrity. More character. More decency.

But we rarely ask the harder question, what happens to those principled leaders when they actually step forward?

Running for public office is often framed as a test of endurance or grit. What’s less discussed is the psychological and relational toll that comes from being publicly distorted, mischaracterized, and attacked; not for ideas, but for identity. These attacks don’t end on election night. They echo into homes, marriages, and lives long after the signs come down.

I know this because I lived it. During my own campaign, I saw how easily a person can be publicly defined by things they never said or believed. Statements were attributed to me that I never made. Motives were assigned that I didn’t hold. And no matter how clearly I tried to speak for myself, I discovered something unsettling: people often believe what they hear repeated about you more than what they hear directly from you. That realization stays with you long after the campaign ends.

Well-meaning advice often follows: “Ignore it. Don’t let it get to you.”

But for people drawn to service rather than conflict, that advice doesn’t build resilience. It builds isolation. Suppression doesn’t make damage disappear, it simply pushes it inward.