The US president is nearly an octogenarian. His predecessor was in his mid 70s. A quick glance around the US Congress will tell you most of the people serving are, well, old.
At 25, community organizer Maxwell Alejandro Frost has made history as the first Gen Z member—those born between 1997 and 2012—elected to Congress. He won a House seat in Florida’s 10th Congressional District.
“History was made tonight,” Frost tweeted. “We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future.”
What’s more is that, alongside the age win in the oldest US Congress in history, there were several other diversity gains in this election cycle, too.
Maxwell Frost’s agenda items
In a state known for older conservatives like Donald Trump and governor Ron DeSantis, the Afro-Cuban progressive’s campaign certainly stood out.
💉 Frost’s plans for “Medicare for all” include giving every person in America access to comprehensive healthcare with no co-pays, deductibles, or premiums, and preventing big pharma from price gouging
😷 He wants to work on pandemic preparedness
🌱 The civil rights activist also laid out a plan to combat the climate crisis, including building robust no-carbon infrastructure, crackdown on corporations that pollute, and ensuring that every community has clean water, access to food, and clean air.
⚖️ His ideas of a justice system overhaul include ending federal subsidies contributing to mass incarceration, demilitarizing the police, and abolishing the death penalty. He also wants to legalize Recreational Marijuana and expunge all marijuana convictions, and fully decriminalize sex work.
❤️🩹 The gun violence survivor is fighting for stricter gun laws
Fun fact about Maxwell Frost
At the age of 15, fresh out of working on Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, Frost hustled his way to get his nine-piece high-school salsa band, Seguro Que Sí (translation: “of course”), to play at Obama’s second inauguration.
Quotable: More young people could run for office
“You see one 25-year-old run for Congress and win, you think I can do this too, and then more people step up. Someone is the first, more people are the second and the third, and the fourth. I am also very confident that because political engagement and political activity is a habit, it’s a muscle, you build it and then it gets stronger and stronger and stronger. We are just seeing the beginning of Gen Z’s engagement as political leaders.” -Amanda Litman, the co-founder of Run for Something, an organization that supports young people running for state and local office, told NPR
The women are coming for Congress and governor posts
Republican Katie Britt is the first woman elected to the Senate from Alabama. With Becca Blint, Vermont finally elected a woman to Congress.
In Massachusetts, Maura Healey became Massachusetts’s first female governor. The former attorney general, whose prime election issues were ran on protecting abortion access and improving child care costs, is also America’s first out lesbian state executive.
In Arkansas, Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former Trump White House press secretary, has been elected the first female governor of Arkansas. Her campaign hinged on tackling crime and implementing tax cuts. Her father, Mike Huckabee, held the same position 15 years ago.
Maryland got its first Black governor
Maryland’s first black governor, Democrat Wes Moore, won with a big lead. The celebrity author, who takes over from GOP’s Larry Hogan who reached his two-term limit, defeated Trump-backed state delegate Dan Cox. On his to-do list are lofty ambitions like ending child poverty and closing the racial wealth gap.
Moore is only the third black governor in the US to date. His running mate, former state delegate Aruna Miller, is the first Asian American elected statewide.
Demographics of US politicians, by the digits
Age
79: US president Joe Biden’s age
58.4: Average age of members of the House in the US Congress as of Sept. 30, 2022
64.3: Average age of Senators in the US Congress
80%: House members that are Gen X or baby boomers
LGBTQ
88: LGBTQ candidates actively running for the House in the 2022 cycle
8: LGBTQ candidates actively running for the Senate in the 2022 cycle
Race
28: Black candidates running for governor, House, Senate, and mayoral positions
Gender
5: States where a woman ran against a woman for governor—Alabama, Arizona, Iowa, Michigan and Oregon.
25: women running in gubernatorial races in 20 cities this year; a record
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