Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
PROVO — Tanner Bennett was at home helping his pregnant wife switch out an IV bag to help with her hyperemesis when, while scrolling through her emails, his wife mentioned that the filing period for Provo City Council candidates was closing.
Bennett's sister-in-law, who was visiting to help with the pregnancy, made an offhand comment that Bennett should run for a seat on the council.
"I was like, yeah, there's no way with everything that's going on. I'm too busy, I have too much stuff on my plate as it is and there's no way I could add something else," Bennett said.
He's not lying, either.
Bennett is a 24-year-old student at Brigham Young University studying political science and working on a minor in Mandarin. Along with his studies, he's a self-described "full-time caretaker" to his pregnant wife, works full-time as a global sales executive for Pleasant Grove-based ASEA and runs an international nongovernmental organization focusing on U.S./China relationships.
Still, it was the thought of "what if" that kept the joke Bennett's sister-in-law made lingering in his ear.
"In my personal life, when I receive, like, inspiration (and) revelation regarding things in my life, that's kind of how it comes, is just these pervasive thoughts that are like 'What if you did? How would this work? What do we do?'" Bennett said.
So, after devising a way that would make the campaign a minimal cost and minimal time commitment, Bennett proposed the idea to his wife.
She told him to go for it and, on Father's Day, the soon-to-be father gifted himself by filing as a candidate for Provo's City Council and announced his campaign for its Citywide II seat as a moderate independent.
A unique campaign
Beyond his age and status as a college student, Bennett's grassroots campaign is unique for two reasons. First, he's running a $0 campaign — not accepting donations and is instead encouraging people to donate or give back to the community.
This idea, he said, was born out of the fact that Bennett is a student and, like many other students, "poor."
"I was realizing, you know if I try and run this in a traditional way, first, I don't think I'm going to get the attention of students and, secondly, when I was researching how much it typically costs to win my seat ... it ranged everywhere from $30,000 to ... $80,000," Bennett said. "I would hate to ask for any contribution from students and just young families in general that would be wasted on something that's essentially an experiment in a lot of ways. It's a really radical, different way of running."
The Daily Universe reported that in 2019, David Shipley won the seat with a $23,000 campaign. One of Shipley's competitors, Janae Moss, spent $72,000.
While Bennett isn't accepting money for his campaign, he's currently running a food and hygiene product drive for disadvantaged community members. Hygiene products can be donated at 229 E. 900 South, in Provo, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Monetary donations for food can be made online here, and also dropped off at the Community Action Services and Food Bank at 815 S. Freedom Boulevard in Provo.
Social media is our primary tool for outreach. I feel like it works better than campaign signs. It works better than anything else because it's personal. I'm here on your screen. I'm telling you what I'm about. I'm showing you what I'm about.
– Tanner Bennett, Provo City Council candidate
Bennett is also targeting a voter demographic of 18- to 30-year-olds, a group he calls the "silent 50%."
"In Provo, (18- to 30-year-olds) make up 50% of our population and, yet, they're the least active politically in the entire city," Bennett said, adding that even if he doesn't win, he wants to see a higher voter turnout from this demographic.
When it comes down to it, he said, local government impacts people the most when it comes to their day-to-day lives.
"We want to be able to help these people that are in our demographic that just don't have that voice," Bennett said.
Beyond canvassing the streets of Provo with his dog Toby, Bennett's campaign is also ramping up on social media. His Instagram account has over 900 followers and his LinkedIn page consistently reels in 50,000 to 60,000 impressions.
"Social media is our primary tool for outreach. I feel like it works better than campaign signs. It works better than anything else because it's personal," Bennett said. "I'm here on your screen. I'm telling you what I'm about. I'm showing you what I'm about."
Goals and policies
Bennett said that the No. 1 issue he's running on is housing and an ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
"Housing in Provo is a nightmare," Bennett said. "It's a heavily scarcity-driven market. The average rent for an apartment in Provo is about $1,800 a month, which is just not tenable for students and for people that are trying to afford it."
He added that many renters have to deal with abusive landlords whose units violate living standards — an issue that also extends to hundreds of small business owners that Bennett has talked with.
Additionally, supporting a growing LGBTQ+ community in Provo and addressing homelessness which has risen in recent years are other top priorities for Bennett.
"Our cost of living is extremely high and our government is super into touting this idea that we're the best-performing city in America ... but, in the same breath, they forget to mention that while we are the No. 1 best-performing city according to some economic metrics, we're still 162 on the housing affordability scale. So we're very, very low on housing affordability which is something we need to drastically improve," Bennett said.
Another top priority of his relates to walkability, bike access and public transportation.
"We have a lot of people that don't have cars or don't use cars because everything's within walking distance," Bennett said. "And yet our walking (and) biking active infrastructure is not super great. Every year we have people that are killed in car accidents because our streets aren't lighted properly. We don't have raised crosswalks in certain areas of the city that would help increase pedestrian safety."
He believes there is a lot that could be done at the city level to reduce the amount of vehicles on the street in Provo, relieve parking issues and make public transportation more active by providing better walking and biking infrastructure.
What once started as an offhand suggestion has now grown into a full-fledged campaign and Bennett is hoping his unorthodox journey to filing, combined with his equally unorthodox campaign methods, can lead to big changes for the city he calls home.
