Washington, United States | AFP |
Generation Z will soon have its voice in Washington.
Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost, all of 25 years old, on Tuesday became the first Gen Z member-elect of Congress when he won a seat in the US House of Representatives.
As a candidate in a district that leans solidly Democratic, Frost’s victory over Republican Calvin Wimbish was called by US networks shortly after polls closed.
“WE WON!!!!” tweeted an exuberant Frost. “We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future.”
As a member of the generation comprising today’s teens and young adults, the African-American Frost, raised by an adoptive mother of Cuban descent, would stand out among the white faces and gray hair in the lower House, where the average age is a seasoned 58.
“We need that representation in Congress so that way we have a government that looks like the country and knows what the country is going through,” the candidate told AFP in Orlando last month on the campaign trail.
Frost, who was driving an Uber during the campaign to make ends meet, has aligned solidly with the Democratic party’s progressive wing, focusing on social justice and the fight against climate change. He has said he will use his position in Washington to seek solutions to gun violence in America.
Frost was just 15 in 2012 when, like so many fellow Americans, he was horrified by the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and he decided to get involved in civic activism.
Later he became a national representative of March For Our Lives, the student-led group that launched with a massive 2018 rally against gun violence.
In New Hampshire, another Gen Z candidate, 25-year-old Karoline Leavitt, is also running for Congress, although she hails from the opposite side of the political spectrum — and is in a more competitive race.
A proud supporter of former president Donald Trump, Leavitt advocates lower taxes and stricter border controls.
Republican Madison Cawthorn is currently the youngest member of Congress, at age 27.
© Agence France-Presse