25-year-old Maxwell Frost is poised to become the 1st Gen Z member of Congress
Gen Z has officially entered the 2022 midterms group chat.
Twenty-five-year-old progressive activist Maxwell Frost has officially won the Democratic House primary in Florida's 10th Congressional District, pushing him one step closer to becoming the first Gen Z member of Congress, NPR reports.
Notably, the open seat is also considered "solidly Democratic," NPR writes, having been vacated by Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) — meaning Frost's spot in Congress is almost a given. He will run against Republican Calvin Wimbish in November.
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"We made history tonight. Thank you so much, Orlando," Frost tweeted early Wednesday.
The 2022 midterms mark the first time members of Gen Z, which the Pew Research Center qualifies as anyone born between the years 1997 and 2012, can run for congressional office, NPR notes. Frost's platform includes textbook progressive stances like Medicare for All, climate action, student debt relief, and gun reform. He also boasts endorsements from big-time progressives like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), among others.
"I've been counted out a lot of my life because of my age," Frost told The Washington Post in an interview. "But I knew that if we stuck to our message, and if we kept doing the work, and we built the movement, we would win."
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Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.
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