Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old community organizer and one of the first members of Gen Z to run for Congress, will win the Democratic nomination in CNN projects in Florida’s 10th District. He beat a crowded field of candidates seeking to replace Orlando-area Democratic Rep. Val Demings, including state Sen. Randolph Bracy, former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown — who recently settled a federal corruption case after winning a new trial and serving more than two years in prison – and former US Rep. Alan Grayson. Demings vacated the blue district seat to run for Senate. He won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday and will face GOP Sen. Marco Rubio in November. Ahead of the primary, Frost — a gun violence prevention activist who this summer interrupted conservative talk show host Dave Rubin’s public interview with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis with calls to end gun violence — has generated a lot of buzz. He was backed by progressive Vermont Sens. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, and had raised $1.5 million as of Aug. 3, more than any other candidate in the field, according to the Federal Election Commission Depositions. For the first time in 2022, members of Generation Z – those born after 1996 – could be elected to the US House of Representatives. Frost on the campaign trail has leaned into his youth and says that if elected to Congress, he would bring with him the fervor of Gen Z. “Our generation has been through some of the modern challenges that our country is going through, yet we don’t have representation in Congress and we deserve to be at the table,” Frost told CNN on Tuesday. “I’m not saying here that I represent the values and thoughts of every member of Gen Z. We’re just like any other generation… lots of different ideologies and all the same. But I think I holistically represent our lived experience as young people,” he said. In addition to fighting for gun safety, Frost has advocated for abortion rights and voting rights with the ACLU of Florida. Since launching his campaign, he has focused his energy on what he calls the need for “bold change.” His platform includes proposals like Medicare for All and a plan to “end gun violence,” as well as “the climate crisis,” which includes the progressive Green New Deal resolution. Frost on Tuesday described growing up as part of the “mass shooting generation” and said, “We’re a generation that goes through more school shooting drills than live fire drills.” “We’ve seen these things and we’ve been wondering all our lives as young people, in middle school and high school and elementary school, why? Why is this happening? Why didn’t we fix it? And now we’re in a place where we can vote and run, and we will,” he said.
