Does Gen Z make a difference in the US Congress?

• Ryan Ermine

  Correspondent from the United States

Pollsters predict record turnout in mid-term elections for a new Congress. In the polls, a red wavebig win for Republicans more likely than a Blue wavegreat victory for the Democrats.

A highly motivated group of voters this time around are the youngest voters, the 18-29 year olds, of whom 40 percent say they will definitely go to the polls. On behalf of the Democrats, 25-year-old Maxwell Frost has a good chance of being the first Gen Zer – born between 1996 and 2015 – to win a seat in Congress.

Maxwell Alejandro Frost is a rare bright spot for Florida Democrats. The state under Governor DeSantis plays a significant role jerk right and Joe Biden’s team is not doing well in many races in the Sunshine State. Frost is located in a solid left-hand district, so the place can hardly escape him.

Drums for the campaign

That doesn’t mean he’s campaigning on autopilot. At the start of a parking lot in Orlando, she’s soundchecked by a band made up of his high school friends.

Frost, dressed in a black T-shirt and shorts, carries the cables and gives directions to the singer, who reads the lyrics of Abba’s Dancing Queen on her cell phone. The band will play on a float during the town’s Pride parade and Frost will play some songs himself. An unusual campaign that fits the way he got into politics as an activist.

“If you look at what my generation went through: Columbine, Parkland, Pulse down here,” sums up carnage after carnage. When, at age 15, she saw the drama at Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which 20 children were killed, she decided to actively fight gun violence.

What do mid-term elections entail? Correspondent Lucas Waagmeester explains:

Maxwell ended up at the youth organization March For Our Lives. He also worked for a civil rights organization and Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. Now the Vermont senator is calling Frost on his cell phone with suggestions for his own campaign. Frost also has the backing of political star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who raided Washington in previous midterms as the youngest politician.

Gen Z is on the left wing of Democrats who believe President Biden should make far more radical choices to protect personal freedoms and combat gun violence and climate change. “Of course we are frustrated. These problems should have been addressed a long time ago.”

He chooses his words carefully: “There is so much unrest. My generation knows no differences. That prospect angers us for so much injustice.” For example, on the housing crisis. Frost barely has time for his studies, but drives as an Uber driver to pay the bills.

Frost isn’t the only one of his generation who wants to go to Capitol Hill as a member of the United States House of Representatives. The 25-year-old Republican Caroline Leavitt in New Hampshire he wants to be the conservative voice of Generation Z. His run is more exciting as he has to defeat an incumbent Democrat. At least you have the support of former President Trump.

Gen Z voting behavior is interesting because this group determines the future political landscape. Out Research shows that most young people have a left political preference on social and economic issues and want a greater role for the government.

Frost wants politics to become more active and inclusive: “We need to show that the government can work for the people and make them feel that their voice makes sense. And we need a government that looks like the rest of the country. Age and skin. color, but also in the experience of life. New people who are imbued with the urgency of these problems “.

According to Frost, there is no more time to waste. During a tour of his he party office, he points to a large graffiti artwork on the wall. “This was taken by Manuel Oliver who lost his son Joaquin in the Parkland school massacre.” Frost reads the text on the canvas, it’s his campaign motto: “Time to save lives. So join or get out of the way.”