College of Charleston junior Nick Shalosky recently became South Carolina’s first openly gay elected official, winning a seat on the Charleston County District 20 Constituent School Board  at the age of 21. Shalosky, secretary of the South Carolina Stonewall Democrats, organized a write-in campaign primarily through Facebook and won the seat with a mere 22 votes.

Shalosky wrote on The Bilerico Project:

I almost didn’t get elected. Two weeks before the election this November, I didn’t even know that I was going to be a candidate. However, as I was early voting, I saw that no one had filed for my local school board seat. Education is important to me (I’m still in college), so with the lack of participation in the school board race, I decided to put my name in as a write-in candidate.

Within two weeks, I had organized enough support to get elected to public office. I texted friends, sent a few emails, and talked with some local bloggers. But, I primarily organized by setting up a Facebook event page, inviting local voters to join, and following up with them to make sure that they knew my name and wrote it in on the appropriate ballot line on Election Day.

Facebook provided me with an avenue to quickly organize after jumping into the race with only two weeks before Election Day. Such rapid mobilization might not have been possible only two years ago. But, with a Facebook page and a knowledge of online organizing, I secured my winning margin without spending a penny.

My political science professor was quoted in our local paper as saying that my model of organizing was “an indication of the direction of future campaigns.” I wish I could say that the way I campaigned was a tremendous foresight into a new direction of campaigning, but it was really just a necessity. As Secretary of the South Carolina Stonewall Democrats, I was already preoccupied with getting out the vote for dozens of other Democrats. That left little room for my own campaign (I actually spent Election Day volunteering for another candidate), but it also left me with an opportunity to try something different.