Meg Thornbury is not your typical politician.

Visit her website and your screen will glow in iridescent shades of neon green and purple. A photo of Meg wearing what appears to be alien antennas sits front and center, light-up rave goggles slung around her neck. She is beaming.

“Greetings! I’m Meg Thornbury. I’m running for city council,” her homepage reads. An avid gamer and Twitch streamer, Thornbury is campaigning for Longmont’s Ward 2 seat because, as she likes to put it, “We’re in the bad timeline.”

Thornbury considers her “unconventional” background to be an asset, not a liability. A licensed clinical social worker, she has spent her career working closely with at-risk youths and children in poverty.

While she may not have the traditional background in, say, law or government, nor the level of experience that some of the other council members do, she brings a fresh perspective that is more relatable to the average Longmont resident, she says.

“From a democratic, and even philosophical standpoint, I think it’s really important for anyone to be able to get involved with politics,” she said. “If we’re going to make the position available to a wide variety of people, then the council should reflect that.”

Thornbury isn’t shy about her progressive values. She is in favor of raising the city’s minimum wage, noting that in an idealistic society, a family with children should be able to live on a single income, even if that income is minimum wage, something that hasn’t been feasible in the United States since the 1950s.

Thornbury said she supports a few other unconventional policies, including universal basic income and ranked choice voting, though she acknowledged that the latter is more realistic to implement in a city council setting.

Social work has taught her a lot about those struggling with mental health crisis situations, she said, which is why she favors de-escalation tactics when it comes to policing. De-escalation tactics are a form of police crisis mitigation efforts that have been implemented in some police forces across the country, to varying degrees. In Longmont, elements of de-escalation tactics, such as the blue envelope program, are beginning to roll out.

Thornbury acknowledges that she and incumbent Matthew Popkin, who is running for his second term, share many of the same community values. What sets her apart, she says, is her advocacy for a more youth-centric approach.

“As a social worker, I am trained to look at systems and see things from that larger perspective. After the (Trump) inauguration, I came to the conclusion that we are not necessarily going to have the federal changes that we’re looking for, but I could have influence in a local situation,” she said.

“I felt called to step into that role.”

Youth engagement is one of her top concerns, especially when it comes to access to after-school programs and safe spaces for at-risk youths. She said she wants to make it easier for young people to find community and contribute their voices to local decisions so that they feel like their input matters, regardless of age, she said. She added that she hopes to be able to advocate for the policies she believes in more directly and be a local positive influence for kids.

As a council member, she said, she would strive to increase civic engagement through improved communication and visibility around city planning and council decisions.

So far, three candidates have announced bids for the Ward 2 seat: Thornbury, Popkin and former city employee Teresa Simpkins.