Activist Maxwell Frost, 25, Wins Florida Primary, Paving Path to Become First Gen Z Member of Congress
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Maxwell Frost, a progressive activist who is one of the first members of Generation Z to run for Congress, has won the Democratic nomination for the House of Representatives in Florida's 10th Congressional District.
Frost, 25, received 19,271 votes in Tuesday's primary election, earning 34.7% of the vote share in a field of 10 Democratic candidates, according to NPR and the Associated Press, which called the race in Frost's favor at 8:59 p.m.
Frost's opponents in the primary included Florida state Sen. Randolph Bracy and former U.S. Reps. Corrine Brown and Alan Grayson.
The Democratic nominee will face Republican Calvin Wimbish, who won the district's GOP primary with 12,101 votes — 44.4% among six candidates — in November's general election, according to NPR.
The district's seat, which was previously held by Florida's Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Val Demings, is considered a "very likely" win for Frost in November by FiveThirtyEight's election simulation model.
"Today's election is proof that Central Florida's working families want representation that has the courage to ask for more," Frost said in a statement. "I share this victory with the nurses, forklift drivers, teachers, caregivers, social workers, farmers, union organizers, cashiers, and other members of this vibrant community who supported this campaign."
Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty
"My name is Maxwell Alejandro Frost and I will be the first Generation-Z member of Congress," he wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning. "Don't count out young people."
House of Representatives members must be at least 25 years old, which would make Frost one of Congress's youngest members and first Gen Z representative in Congress. In 2019, the Pew Research Center defined 1997 as the first year members of Gen Z were born.
Frost's campaign did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment Wednesday.
Maxwell Alejandro Frost for Congress
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The candidate's campaign website states that Frost supports Medicare for All, banning assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, investing in preparations for future pandemics and the Green New Deal as part of his platform.
Frost first grew involved in political organizing as a high school student following the 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut; he told Business Insider in May that that he experienced a close brush with gun violence himself in 2016 when two men started shooting at one another during a Halloween event in Orlando that Frost and his friends were at.
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Frost traveled to Washington, D.C., for a memorial for the victims of the Newtown shooting and met a brother of one of the victims, according to Business Insider.
"I mean, seeing a 16-year-old with the demeanor of a 60-year-old, crying over his sister who was murdered for just going to class that morning," Frost told Business Insider in May. "I made a commitment: For the rest of my life, I'm gonna fight for a world where no one has to feel that way, the way I saw [him] feel."
Though Frost only became eligible to serve in Congress on his 25th birthday, his political organizing experience is extensive: He has worked for three presidential campaigns, several Florida state-level campaigns, the American Civil Liberties Union, and was the national organization director for March for Our Lives, created by survivors of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, according to Business Insider.
"Florida just did what almost everybody in the establishment thought impossible," David Hogg, a co-founder of March for Our Lives, wrote on Twitter Tuesday night. "Elect @MaxwellFrostFL a 25-year-old progressive activist to congress. Never underestimate the power of pissed off young people."
