In a state where the youth voting rate is even worse than the dismal national average, half a dozen Kansas teens are running for statewide office in 2018 – a sort of viral movement against apathy that could, in theory, make a high school student governor.

Naturally, adults are trying to stop it.

A state legislative committee moved a bill forward this week that would bar people under age 18 from running for statewide office, after a 16-year-old discovered a loophole in the state’s electoral laws and inspired his peers to flood the race.

“Oh, I could do that,” Jack Bergeson thought to himself when he realized Kansas law, while it restricts voting ages, says nothing about who can run for governor, the Kansas City Star reported last August.

So the Wichita high school junior filed to run in the Democratic primary, campaigning for health care reform, medical marijuana and open-carry gun laws. One of his classmates, a year older than Bergeson at 17, became his running mate.

More and more joined the movement. By January, NPR wrote, six teens had entered the governor’s race alone – making up about a third of the candidates.

That’s when the adults began to fight back.

State Rep. Blake Carpenter, a Republican, introduced a bill in the Kansas legislature in January that would bar anyone too young to vote from running for the governor’s office and other top state offices.

The bill, which passed out of a committee on Tuesday, wouldn’t affect the 2018 election if it becomes law. But going forward, Carpenter said, rules had to be laid down.

However, some in the state capitol are trying to keep teen candidacies legal.

“We have all the requirements we need right now and that is, that you don’t get elected unless the people decide to elect you,” Democratic Rep. Vic Miller said, according to the Star.

Bergeson, the teen who started the movement, doesn’t sound like he especially needs adult help.

“Allow me to clear up a misconception: I am not running for governor as a stunt, or a gag,” he told the legislature in written testimony opposing the bill, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

“I am running for governor because of the minimum-wage worker that has to work three jobs just to get by. I am running because our education system has been lagging behind other states. I am running to get money out of politics,” Bergeson wrote.

“But most importantly, I am running to get as many people involved in politics as possible.”