Brandon Paulin, who was elected mayor of Indian Head at 19, arrives in Washington DC to urge millennials to run for public office

Brandon Paulin gazed at the cameras, notebooks and laptops resting on knees among rows of seats at the National Press Club in Washington. “I’ve never been at a press conference before,” the mayor said. “It’s a little bit different.”

Paulin is not your typical career politician, used to fending off questions from reporters ravenous for a gaffe. When he took office last year, he was 19, the youngest mayor in Maryland’s history.

Last Tuesday, he came to the US capital to express support for a program that means to recruit millennials into races for public office.

“I had tons of people telling me it couldn’t be done, that I couldn’t do it. But I did it. And at the end of the day, that’s kind of what counts,” Paulin said.

“I’m still doing it,” he added. “I think hopefully I’ve changed a lot of those minds within my own community. Yes, outside my community, they’re going to say, ‘That’s that young mayor guy,’ but they don’t know what I’m doing inside the community.”

He was elected last May in the town of Indian Head, population roughly 4,000, after winning 239 votes, more than double the total of the incumbent mayor, Dennis Scheessele. His teenage friends helped him campaign under the slogan “New vision, new way”, knocking on doors and handing out pamphlets.

Paulin turned 20 last December – still too young to legally drink – and does the job part-time while studying. He shares an office with full-time council staff but works long hours, and believes he is already making an difference in Indian Head, home to a US naval base.

“I’ve tried to take the bull by the horns in terms of economic development within my town,” he said. “We’ve rebuilt tons of parks and we have a balanced budget for the first time in many years. I think we’ve done a really good job at that.”

Paulin appeared with Action for America, a new national political group funded by more than a hundred grassroots donors across the country. It has launched a bipartisan effort to recruit 100 members of the millennial generation to seek state and local office in the next two years, contending that “political dysfunction” in Washington should be subjected to “out of the box” thinking, and a shakeup of the system in a spirit similar to that of startups such as Uber or Airbnb, which have changed the business landscape.

Paulin’s favourite president, James Madison, was just 29 when elected to the Constitutional Convention, the group noted. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence at 33. Alexander Hamilton was 34 when he held the position of treasury secretary. The youngest president was Theodore Roosevelt, a tender 42 when he assumed the office.

“It’s a point of seeing change in your community,” Paulin said, citing Mahatma Gandhi’s maxim “be the change you wish to see in the world”.

“That’s a quote I took to heart because I saw things stagnant or in decline within my community,” he explained. “I think that’s similar throughout the nation, so I decided to do something about it.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brandon Paulin: ‘When I was able to run for office, I decided to go for it.’ Photograph: Courtesy of Brandon Paulin

He started going to town council meetings when he was 10 and, while in high school, wrote an essay criticising older generations for suppressing creativity and innovation by the young. “When I was able to run for office, I decided to go for it. I had no clue what I was getting myself into,” he said. “I knew the basis, I knew what goes on during town meetings, how to pass an ordinance, talking to people – that’s what I’m good at.”

Paulin is the first member of his family to go into politics. His father, a police officer on Capitol Hill, wondered if it was such a good idea. “He’s seen Congress from a different side. That’s why he was like: ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ But he’s definitely helped me out a lot.”

His mother has also been supportive while looking after his 13-year-old brother, who has congenital heart defects and has endured more than a dozen heart surgeries. Paulin is also part-time student, majoring in political science at the College of Southern Maryland, though he said his duties come first: “It’s a challenge to balance that time, but if I have to cut back on classes to better my community, that’s what I’m going to do.”

He doesn’t have much spare time these days, but enjoys fishing, food, movies and hanging out with friends. He was a “big wrestler” in high school and plans to catch a few tournaments over the summer. And what of this year’s presidential election? Even at 20, he has a politician’s gift for avoiding awkward questions.

“I’m nonpartisan,” he said. “I think that’s me at all levels. I always tend to vote for the best person who gets the job done, the person who can go in and do what they say they’re going to do. To me, your word’s everything. I do not have a preference in the presidential election; I’m just seeing how that one turns out.”

And asked if he plans to run for Congress or the White House himself one day, Paulin was again masterfully vague. “I’ll play it by ear,” he said. “I’m not sure yet.”