Maxwell Alejandro Frost, the Bernie Sanders-endorsed 25-year-old progressive candidate, has won the primary election of Florida’s 10th Congressional District in Orlando, ensuring his spot in a deep blue county as the youngest and the first member of Generation Z to walk the halls of Congress.
“I think this win shows the country: Don’t count us out. Don’t count out young people,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” following his win.
Frost will most likely become the Progressive caucus’ newest member, supporting key progressive issues such as the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, student debt cancelation, gun violence, and more.
His advocacy and involvement in political organizations were shaped in 2011 following the Occupy Wall Street protests and his discovery of wealth inequality, but it really began in 2012 following the Sandy Hook mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Three years later, he would become a survivor of gun violence himself. He also became involved with March For Our Lives as the national organizing director, and the ACLU.
“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,” he told NPR.
The 2022 midterm elections are the first elections where members of Generation Z are allowed to run for Congress.
Frost’s race was highly competitive, but he ultimately was the one who came out on top, beating nine other Democrats in the running for that seat previously held by Val Demmings, who herself won the Democratic nomination for Florida senator, and who will take on Republican Marco Rubio in November.
If elected, Frost will become the only Afro-Cuban, the youngest member, and the first Generation Z member of Congress.
He faces conservative activist Calvin Wimbish in November.
