I know a guy who was with my son's Marine outfit, so combat veteran. He also graduated law school later. He was interested in politics, and absolutely the kind of person most of us would vote for, honest, hard working, dedicated, wanted to change things for the better. He started going to the usual political meetings to get an idea of where to start and was completely turned off by it all, he said he couldn't stand it.
I have another friend who was elected to our village council and who ran for mayor but she said the same kind of thing, going any further was just tawdry.
If you have a ton of money you can bypass working your way up of course. But for folks like us, I think we just couldn't stand it, even if we might someday make the state legislature.