This Texas state house candidate wants to flip his district blue — and he’s only 21
In 2022, we’re witnessing the first wave of Gen Z candidates running for Congress. But we’re also seeing the first wave of Zoomers running for state and local offices to effect change in their own backyards. Chegg Life sat down with a series of candidates under 30 who will be on the ballot this November. We asked them about the problems they’re running to fix, the importance of local politics and cynicism among young voters. View the whole series here.
When Graeson Lynskey was in high school, he liked to stay up on current events and loved to argue.
So, naturally, people told him he should get involved with politics.
The Rockwall, Texas, native swore he wouldn’t. He thought politicians were corrupt — always out to get rich off the back of the little guy. But by the time he was 21, Lynskey says watching leaders in Texas fail to take care of issues like gun violence, abortion rights and natural disasters — all while rolling back taxes on corporations and leaving small businesses in the dust — changed his mind. After attending the University of Oklahoma to study drama and political science and volunteering on several campaigns, Lynskey stepped up to challenge a Republican incumbent for the District 33 seat in Texas’s House of Representatives. There, he hopes to help protect small businesses, fight discrimination and fix Texas’ power grid.
How and when did you become interested in politics and government?
In 2020, I’d been cast in a musical in Dallas. It was going to be my first real professional acting gig. I’d gotten paid for a few things here and there, but I was on track to being a working actor. Then, Covid happened, and everything shut down. I moved home the summer after college and took a job at Starbucks.
My brother-in-law was running for city council, and we’re fairly close. We have a lot of disagreements on policy — he’s a Republican — but I told him that I would help out with some of his communications and candidate shaping. I’d always been interested in politics but never worked in it. I learned a lot. The first thing being that I couldn’t ever work for a Republican candidate again. I couldn't separate the communications work from the policy aspect.
The second thing I learned was that I was really interested in the political process and elections — how candidates present themselves, the jobs about helping candidates present themselves, speechwriting, stuff like that. 2020 ended, and there were no elections anymore. So I was kind of just waiting for another crack. I took an internship at the Texas state house in the summer of 2021and I got to work with some awesome people, helping people out with workforce claims and things like that.
How did you decide to run for office?
In 2022, I worked for a candidate, Doc Shelby who ran in my home congressional district. He lost the primary to another great guy, but I really enjoyed the work. I would have stayed with that work, but my district’s state rep is a Republican. and we were getting close to the filing deadline, and there were no Democrats running for the seat.
I started talking to people about the possibility of me running. I talked to my parents and some mentors, Ericka Ledford, the former director of the Rockwall County Democratic Party who’s running for county commissioner. She told me that if there was one thing I could do to make a difference, it was to run for a state seat, because state issues are really important — common sense gun reform, especially after the shooting in Uvalde, re-establishing the right to choose, fixing the electrical grid to make sure that we don't have another power failure that kills hundreds of Texans, paying teachers the wages they deserve. All of these things are going to be solved at the state level.
Tell me a little bit about running as a 21-year-old. What has been your most difficult and most rewarding moment on the campaign trail?
The most challenging part is just walking into a room and telling people that I'm 21. Unless I’m talking to college students or Young Democrats, there’s judgment off the bat. The assumption is that I'm in over my head or speaking from privilege, which makes me think I know better than someone with 40 years of experience. Everybody wants to give me advice. I’ve gotten bad advice and also good advice. Once a candidate, who was facing criminal indictment for violating campaign laws, came over after I gave my stump speech and told me he had pointers. I was like “Respectfully, man, you should probably worry about yourself.” Lots of that kind of thing.
At the same time, some people are really excited. At the Texas Democratic Party convention this summer, I gave a speech. I got up and said, “Hi, I'm Graeson Lynskey. I'm 21 years old, and I'm running for state house.” And there was just raucous applause. People are excited about the energy and ideas of young people.
Young people are the future of this country. Frankly, Gen Z handed Biden the presidency. They've been at the forefront of the Democratic Party for a long time now. We're coming into our own, starting to vote at higher rates, and I think that it's important that we have representation in elected offices, not just in the voting population. Nobody understands the struggle of student loans, a low minimum wage or climate change like Generation Z. We're the ones who are going to have to inherit all these problems. We grew up post-Columbine, going through multiple recessions, a pandemic, an insurrection. We deserve a say in some of these big issues.
What would you say to young people who feel cynical about or disappointed by electoral politics?
I get it. I'm also disappointed in electoral politics. We've been told for years that if we allowed moderate Democrats to continue to hold power, we'd be able to accomplish policy goals. So we nominate people like Amy McGrath in Kentucky against Mitch McConnell, and she loses by 18 points, because progressives aren't going to vote for Amy McGrath. She was Republican until like five minutes ago! So I get it.
There’s nothing I want more than comprehensive immigration overhaul, firearm reform, statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico, voting rights, criminal justice reform. But despite all that anger, electoral politics gave us Senator Jon Ossoff and Senator Warnock in Georgia, who helped give us the largest climate and infrastructure spending bill our country has ever seen. It's not enough, but the start is a 50/50 senate. I think the game needs to change, but I think that in order to change the game, we have to win the game first.
That means getting a functioning Democratic majority in the House and Senate, 50 senators who will abolish the filibuster. It means getting a Democratic majority in the state house and senate here in Texas and voting in Beto O’Rourke for governor and Rochelle Garza for attorney general on November 9. If we do that, we can fund our education system, overhaul Texas infrastructure — these things are going to save lives. Restoring abortion rights would save lives. Gun reform will save lives. As frustrated as I am with electoral politics — and think it’s a messed-up system built and run by 80-year-old white dudes for 200 years — there are races that are going to save lives in November, so I’m knocking on doors and making phone calls. It's too important to stay home.
What would your 10-year-old self think of you running for office?
When I was 15, I went to Austin to tour the University of Texas. I remember being at the state capitol, and my sister looked at me and said, “Maybe you’ll get into politics.” Because I was argumentative and interested in it. I said, “I will never get into politics. Politics are dirty, underhanded and unethical. They are for snake oil salesmen trying to get richer on the backs of good, hardworking people that are being robbed blind.”
That was six years ago. I thought politics was for people who were in cigar-smoke-filled rooms doing backroom deals that screwed the little guy. But it doesn't have to be that way, just because that’s how it’s been. And I realized the only way to change that was to get involved and fix it. So if my younger self could see me now, he'd have some choice words. But he’s a kid. He’ll figure it out.
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