The Kid Who Ran for President

The Kid Who Ran for President by Dan Gutman (Scholastic, 1996) follows a 12-year-old boy as he campaigns to become the next president of the United States. In 2016, John Oliver presented a segment on Last Week Tonight, where he compared the book to the Trump campaign. Gutman is the author of over 70 books for kids and young adults, including the Baseball Card Adventures series, the My Weird School series, and the Million Dollar series. He holds a bachelor's in Psychology from Rutgers University. He worked as a magazine editor and columnist for several years before realizing he would rather write for children. He currently lives with his wife in New York City. This guide follows the Scholastic 2012 version of The Kid Who Ran for President.

Plot Summary

The Kid Who Ran for President is told from the perspective of 12-year-old Judson Moon, the kid running for president. While watching the news, Judson’s friend Lane Brainard gets the idea that a kid would make a perfect president and, after some debate, decides Judson is the kid for the job. Judson is skeptical but agrees, not wanting to let Lane down and thinking the entire thing is a grand joke.