Check your social media before you run for office
Short answer: If you're running for school board, town office or an appointed board, assume residents will search your public accounts, often right after you win or are sworn in. In the 15 local cases collected on Found later, what surfaced included likes, shared memes and posts up to ten years old. Review your history before you file your papers, and decide what to keep rather than deleting everything at once.
Who looks, and when
For local office, the person digging is usually not an employer. In the cases collected here it was parents passing screenshots around, a resident the candidate had blocked, a local civil-rights chapter, a reporter, or fellow council members reviewing a colleague's account. Many cases surfaced within days or weeks of an election win, an appointment or a swearing-in.
Parties and campaigns look too. A former Canadian party official describes candidates handing over every social media handle so staff can scan them before approval (The Hub, 2025). In the 2026 US cycle, opposition researchers found old and deleted posts by tracing usernames candidates had reused across sites (Wake Up To Politics, 2026).
What gets found
- Likes. A city councilor was asked to resign over posts he had only liked.
- Shared memes. Several school board members and appointees resigned over memes they shared, not wrote.
- Old posts. A council candidate dropped out over forum posts written about ten years earlier, as a teenager.
- Heated posts. A school committee member resigned days after a post insulting a candidate's supporters. It cuts both ways politically.
Before you file your papers
- Request your exports from every platform you've used and run them through a review, likes included. See how to clean up your social media.
- Look at photos by hand. PruneSocial doesn't read images yet, so memes, screenshots and photos need a look by hand.
- Search your old usernames. Forums and old accounts you've forgotten are where researchers look first.
- Decide what to keep, hide or remove. Don't mass delete: deleting hundreds of posts at once can become the story. If you already hold office, ask your clerk or town attorney whether your posts count as public records before deleting anything.
- Have a short answer ready for anything you keep that could be read the wrong way.
Real cases
Published news cases from school boards, local office, campaigns and appointments. Names left out on purpose; each links to its source.
- What surfaced
- Posts denying the Holocaust and praising Hitler
- How it came out
- Online outlet report 3 months after he was sworn in
- Outcome
- Resigned; he said the posts don't reflect his beliefs
Source: WVXU
- What surfaced
- More than 300 deleted posts and retweets, including insults of police and a senator
- How old it was
- Some months
- How it came out
- Courthouse News review; senators' questions
- Outcome
- Nomination withdrawn; spokesperson cited a family matter
Source: Courthouse News
- What surfaced
- Tweets described as antisemitic
- How old it was
- 10+ years
- How it came out
- A newsletter found them right after the appointment
- Outcome
- Resigned
Source: Anadolu Agency
- What surfaced
- A profane post insulting the president-elect and his supporters
- How old it was
- Days
- How it came out
- Backlash from residents
- Outcome
- Resigned
Source: Boston.com
- What surfaced
- Facebook posts the mayor called "antisemitic, misogynistic, and conspiratorial"
- How it came out
- Came out a week after he was sworn in; council members said a simple search would have found them
- Outcome
- Resigned; he apologized
Source: ABC7 Chicago
- What surfaced
- Posts about the then vice president that the outlet called racist and derogatory
- How old it was
- 2+ years
- How it came out
- The local NAACP found them and sought his removal
- Outcome
- Resigned; apologized for the "racist undertones"
Source: FOX56
- What surfaced
- Posts and memes the district called hateful toward transgender people, people of color and women
- How it came out
- Screenshots circulated among parents; complaints reached the board
- Outcome
- Resigned; a recall had started
Source: Press Herald, NewsCenter Maine
- What surfaced
- 40+ memes in a private group that OPB said denigrated women, immigrants and LGBTQ+ people
- How old it was
- Up to about 7 years
- How it came out
- OPB report, then a protest at City Hall
- Outcome
- Resigned
Source: OPB
- What surfaced
- Crude jokes about the governor and a violent suggestion about the incumbent's family
- How old it was
- Several years
- How it came out
- Local TV report
- Outcome
- State party asked him to quit; withdrew next day; apologized
Source: Mitchell Republic
- What surfaced
- Years of partisan tweets; hundreds deleted before the hearing
- How old it was
- Years
- How it came out
- Senate confirmation process
- Outcome
- Withdrew; apologized
Source: WJLA
- What surfaced
- Shared images and posts comparing a former president's supporters to the KKK and calling Christian nationalists terrorists, per the outlets
- How it came out
- State senators found them during confirmation; the outlets put them at about a year old or less
- Outcome
- Withdrew; the office restarted its search
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, WICS NewsChannel 20
- What surfaced
- Memes questioning Black people's moral values and disparaging protesters
- How it came out
- Other board members learned of the posts
- Outcome
- Resigned
Source: WFAE
- What surfaced
- Meme joking about driving through protesters
- How it came out
- Screenshots were shared on other pages after the post was taken down
- Outcome
- Resigned
Source: Brainerd Dispatch
- What surfaced
- Meme CBC said encouraged violence against transgender people
- How it came out
- First reported by PressProgress, per CBC
- Outcome
- Asked to withdraw; barred from caucus
Source: CBC
- What surfaced
- Likes on a resident's posts that the council said showed misogyny and support for violence toward citizens
- How old it was
- Weeks to months
- How it came out
- Council and staff reviewed his social media
- Outcome
- Resigned at the council's request on June 10, 2020; two days later he said he regretted it and would keep campaigning, but the council called the seat vacant and said it would fill it. He apologized
Source: Green River Star
- What surfaced
- Facebook comments residents called racist, including remarks on eugenics
- How it came out
- A resident he had blocked posted screenshots
- Outcome
- Asked to resign; no recall provision existed; lost re-election 1,375 to 680 two years later
Source: VTDigger, Bennington Banner
- What surfaced
- Shared memes the outlet said were highly critical of Islam or linked Democrats to Nazis
- Outcome
- Turned down a Citizen of the Year award, then resigned
Source: CalCoastNews
- What surfaced
- Posts CBS described as derogatory about Muslims
- How it came out
- Reported by Politico after a rival-party operative found the posts
- Outcome
- State party and national committee withdrew support; he disputed authorship and stayed in
Source: CBS Sacramento
- What surfaced
- Confederate flag and Dylann Roof images; the school system called them "disrespectful and offensive"
- How old it was
- About 4 years
- How it came out
- Found after the board's 9-0 vote, before swearing-in
- Outcome
- Withdrew
Source: WTKR
- What surfaced
- Sexually graphic posts and a post calling for the president's execution
- How old it was
- 5 to 6 years
- How it came out
- A blogger, then the Tampa Bay Times
- Outcome
- Fired less than 2 weeks after hiring; apologized
Source: Fox News, Talking Points Memo
- What surfaced
- Tweets and articles from years earlier, including a 2009 tweet MPs raised in Parliament and writing on "progressive eugenics"
- How old it was
- Several years; one tweet from 2009
- How it came out
- MPs, unions and the press scrutinized his record after the appointment; a Commons emergency question followed
- Outcome
- Resigned from the board on January 9, 2018, a day after the Commons debate; he said the reaction had become a "distraction" from the regulator's work
Source: Times Higher Education, Schools Week
- What surfaced
- More than 120 posts on a forum the outlet called white supremacist, written as a teenager
- How old it was
- About 10 years
- How it came out
- Surfaced a week before the vote
- Outcome
- Dropped out; he confirmed and apologized
Source: Boston Magazine
- What surfaced
- Tweets calling women "sluts" and website comments disparaging Black people's speech and dress, per AP
- How old it was
- 6 to 7 years, some written in college
- How it came out
- Surfaced within weeks of the hire
- Outcome
- Resigned; he apologized
Source: AP via CBS Texas, UPI
See what residents will see
PruneSocial scores the text in your own account exports, including likes and comments, against published screening categories and gives you one cleanup action for anything flagged. It also lists political, news-event and workplace commentary separately as reputation flags. Try a free 50-item preview first.
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