There is NO WAY to succinctly answer this question. I'm really sorry. But there's not.
There are thousands, if not tens of thousands or more. There are so many different political and elected positions. The President and Vice President of the United States are politicians. The governor of your State is also. So are your Senators and your Representatives in Congress. The mayor of your town is a politician. So are your elected school board members and county council members. Any person influencing group opinions in his or her favor can be termed a politician. Not to mention law enforcement officers, such as sheriffs, and many state and local judges are elected or appointed officials.
This is just counting the people who manage to get elected. Anyone who runs for an elected office or has previously held any such office would also be a politician. And that's not even thinking about appointed political players or influencers- such as those who serve in the President's Cabinet like Hillary Clinton, or the White House Chief of Staff Pete Rouse, or the President's many senior aides. And that is all on the national scale. Every state, city, town and borough have similar systems.
Just off of the top of my head- US Congress consisting of 100 Senators, 435 Representatives, and 6 Non-voting members. 50 state Governors, 1200 Mayors in the United States Conference of Mayors which is only cities with populations of 30,000 or more. That's almost 1800 right there.
How many members sit on a given school board? How about City Council? There are 253 members of Pennsylvania's State General Assembly. I don't know how many gubernatorial seats there are in other states. How many political programs are in the White House alone?
The following entities exist within the Executive Office of the President:
Council of Economic Advisers
Council on Environmental Quality
National Security Council and Homeland Security Council
Office of Administration
Office of Management and Budget
Office of National Drug Control Policy
Office of Science and Technology Policy
Office of the United States Trade Representative
Office of the Vice President
Executive Residence
In addition, the following entities exist within The White House:
Office of Cabinet Affairs
Office of the Chief of Staff
Office of Communications
Communications
Media Affairs
New Media
Research
Speechwriting
Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy
Office of the First Lady
Office of the Social Secretary
Office of Health Reform
National Security Advisor
Office of Legislative Affairs
Office of Management and Administration
White House Personnel
White House Operations
Telephone Office
Visitors Office
Oval Office Operations
Office of Political Affairs
Office of Presidential Personnel
Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs
Office of Public Engagement
Council on Women and Girls
Office of Intergovernmental Affairs
Urban Affairs
Office of the Press Secretary
Office of Scheduling and Advance
Office of the Staff Secretary
Presidential Correspondence
Executive Clerk
Records Management
Office of the White House Counsel
Office of White House Policy
Domestic Policy Council
Office of National AIDS Policy
Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships
Office of Health Reform
Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation
National Economic Council
White House Military Office
All are led by politicians, overseen by politicians and run by politicians and people in politics. The only reasonable conclusion is that there's a lot of Politicians in the United States.
About half a million persons hold elected state and local offices.
More than are willing to admit it.
537
president
12 years
They take money for lobbyists. Big business rules our government. Even though our tax dollars go to the "elected officials", they really could care less about us.
The Judicial branch
The members of the US House of Representatives are elected for 2-year terms which is the shortest term of any federal official .
In the US and in many democratic nations, the officials within a legislative branch of government are normally elected by the people they serve.
single-member districts
In the US both houses of Congress are elected directly, as are all state offices. In fact, the US President and the Vice-President are the elected officials that are not directly elected.
most officials, across local, state, and federal level
Some positions are elected, some are appointed by elected officials, some are drafted into service in times of war.
The US city of New York is controlled by elected officials, elected by citizens eligible to vote. The people of New York City control it by voting for officials. Appointees by its mayor will be among many things that determine if the mayor can be reelected.
The US Secretary of State and the rest of the US Foreign Service (diplomat core) are public officials directly running and organizing US foreign policy.