I live near the former Holmdel Bell Labs complex. It’s an amazing building. It was sadly left in disrepair for decades until a developer bought it a few years back and turned it into a corporate office space with a mall at the ground floor. I got my Covid shots there.
In one of my 300 level poli sci classes, literally one of the first things the professor said is that in politics, everyone running for office is a power-hungry narcissist. It’s only a slight exaggeration.
That type of person is at every level of politics. I’d wager that if you could get data on the real motivations of every person who has ever run for office, you’d probably see the same amount of those people at every level, from school board to president.