He can't vote, can't drive a car, and still needs a permission slip for field trips — but 14-year-old Dean Roy believes he's ready to run Vermont.

While most high school freshmen set their eyes on student council or homecoming king, the teenager is looking to make history with an eye-popping campaign for governor.

'I really hope that this mission of mine leads to more youth getting involved,' Roy told the Daily Mail.

If elected, he'd be the first-ever US governor under the age of 18. 

In 2018, 13-year-old Ethan Sonneborn ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Vermont. The youngest-ever US governor was Democrat Stevens Mason, who had just turned 24 when he began serving his term in Michigan in 1835.

Speaking from his bedroom with an American flag hanging vertically behind him, Roy told the Daily Mail his long-shot campaign all started with an offhand comment. At his 8th-grade graduation, his teacher joked that he wanted the campaign manager job if Roy ever ran for office.

What was likely intended as a throwaway comment struck a moment of curiosity for the youngster, who rushed home and looked up the requirements. 

He found that Vermont is the only state with no age restrictions to run for governor. A handful of states allow citizens to apply at 18, but the majority require a candidate to be 30 on the date of the election.

Dean Roy, 14, is running to be the youngest-ever governor in US history

Roy is a freshman at Stoew Middle & High School in Vermont. Pictured: Dean Roy and his parents, Chessie and James, who own a pizza shop

Roy's classmate Charlie Bass, also 14, is running as lieutenant governor. Both are working to collect the 500 signatures needed to get on the ballot – and they only need a few dozen more to make the cut

That unnamed teacher decided to keep his day job, but Roy and his fellow 14-year-old Lieutenant Governor candidate Charlie Bass are now collecting signatures and shaking things up in the halls of Stowe High School in northern Vermont.

Roy and Bass are hoping to mobilize young voters on social media. Both are active on Instagram, regularly posting Reels expressing political stances and promoting the long-shot bid to be the youngest governor and lieutenant governor in US history. 

And what's on the ballot for the high schoolers?: Housing, freedom from electric vehicle mandates and restructuring the school system in Vermont.

'The cornerstone of my platform is housing, by far housing is the biggest issue for Vermont, for New England and for the country,' Roy said in a Zoom interview with the Daily Mail, echoing an issue championed by New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. 

The son of small business owners, Roy said that it's his goal to build houses for $150,000 or lower so 'younger generations could actually afford' to buy a home in Vermont.