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Dude I agree with what you're saying, and I don't think anything in the article is suggesting that you just graduate from law school, stick your name on a ballot and join some 1 in 40 lottery. The question is: if you do what you're suggesting and take one of these routes into Congress, what are your odds of doing so successfully?

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I was complaining about their methodology mostly. If you took the number of people running for office who had previous political experience (which means they had served in office) I would guess that there was a power log curve in there. If they have served 5 or more years in another public office before running for Congress I would expect they have a very solid chance to be elected.

Yeah, I wrote it. I agree with you completely - the post notes in passing that being elected at a lower level is a very common route to getting elected to Congress, and shows half of members did just that. Perhaps I should have emphasised that more.

We currently advise people in their 20s so for them the question is more what their first step should be, rather than what they should do once in their 30s.

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