Maxwell Alejandro Frost and Karoline Leavitt Could Be Elected into Congress

Maxwell Alejandro Frost and Karoline Leavitt, both aged 25, could become the first Gen Zs elected into congress

Gen Z are notably a very politically involved generation and they have been actively pushing for more political representation for years. Now, there is a possibility that not one, but two Gen Z politicians could be elected into Congress after the upcoming elections. If Karoline Leavitt and Maxwell Alejandro Frost are elected, it would be the first time in U.S history that anyone belonging to Generation Z would be elected into Congress, since their coming of age in 2015. 

Former Trump aide, Republican Karoline Leavitt, became the first Republican Gen Z Congressional nominee after winning the primary for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District in early September. This win came less than a month after Leavitt’s 25th birthday, the constitutional minimum age to serve in the House of Congress. Now, Leavitt, who opposes abortion and gun control and supports a ‘zero tolerance’ policy against illegal immigration, must square off with popular Democrat Chris Pappas in November. 

Karoline Leavitt

© Brian Snyder

The Democratic Party also has a Gen Z candidate on the path towards Congress, with Maxwell Alejandro Frost, also 25, who recently won the Democratic primary for an open House seat in Florida’s 10th Congressional District. The politician, an Afro-Latino who was adopted at birth and raised in a Spanish-speaking, Cuban-American household, is politically progressive and supports Medicare for all, stricter gun laws and abortion rights. He is quickly becoming a Democratic favorite despite having little political experience and no college degree. 

If either Leavitt or Frost are elected, they would become the youngest sitting member of Congress. If both of the young politicians are elected, then Leavitt, who is seven months younger than Frost, would become Congress’s youngest member. However, neither politician would become the youngest ever member of Congress, as that record is already held by William C.C Claiborne who was elected to represent Tennessee in 1797, at the age of 22 and is highly unlikely to ever be broken. 

In modern times, however, it is rare to see a 25-year-old elected into the House of Congress and the most recent young politician to achieve this feat was Madison Cawthorne, a Republican from North Carolina who was elected in 2020. Before this, the last 25-year-old to be elected into the House of Congress was Thomas Downey, a Democratic Representative of New York in 1974.

 

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