These Gen Z Congressional Candidates Want America To Be More Progressive

Maxwell Frost and Ray Reed could be the first Gen Z members to serve in the U.S. House.

For the first time in 16 years,ย Millennials arenโ€™t the youngest individuals able to run for Congress in the 2022 midterms. Generation Z members Maxwell Frost and Ray Reedโ€”both who are 25 years oldโ€”could be the youngest to serve in the U.S. House.

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Frost is running for Congress in Floridaโ€™s 10th Congressional District, which contains parts of Orlando, as a Democratic candidate. He told NPR:

โ€œTurning on the TV and seeing a bunch of people sleeping outside of Wall Street talking about something called โ€˜wealth inequalityโ€™ โ€“ seeing that in elementary school. Growing up learning that 30 minutes away from me, a kid that looked like me who was wearing a hoodie was murdered for being Black, Trayvon Martin, and seeing the outrage after that. Our generation has been born into a lot of trauma and a lot of civil unrest around people being frustrated with things. And I think because of that, our generation naturally thinks about things in a bit of a different way.โ€

Ray Reed, a former Democratic campaign staffer and organizer, is running for a seat in Missouriโ€™s 2nd Congressional District. In the same NPR article, he shrugs off the critics saying that he needs more political experience:

โ€œThe cynics kind of say, oh, heโ€™s too young, heโ€™s too untried, maybe if he were to spend, a few terms in Jeff[erson] City, maybe then heโ€™ll be ready to run for Congress. Which is really just political talk for letโ€™s get him in our system. Letโ€™s teach him how to play the game our way. And then if we say heโ€™s ready, he can run for a higher office. I think the real risk is to nominate the same type of Democratic candidates election after election after election and somehow expect a different result.โ€

With our current governmentโ€™s reluctance to protect human rights, these candidates for Congress could be a step in the right direction.

Straight From The Root

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