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 Florida’s 10th District, CNN projects.
He bested a crowded field of candidates looking to replace Democratic Rep. Val Demings in the Orlando district including state Sen. Randolph Bracy, former US 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 deep-blue district seat to run for Senate. She clinched the Democratic nomination Tuesday and will face GOP Sen. Marco Rubio in November.
Ahead of the primary, Frost — a gun violence prevention activist who this summer disrupted conservative talk show host Dave Rubin’s public interview of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis with calls to end gun violence — generated considerable buzz.
He was endorsed by progressives Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, and he had raised $1.5 million through Aug. 3, more than any other candidate in the field, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
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 the fervor of Gen Z with him.
“Our generation has been through some of the modern challenges our country is going through, yet we don’t have representation in Congress, and we deserve to be at the table,” Frost told CNN Tuesday.
“I’m not here saying I represent the values and thoughts of every single member of Gen Z. We’re like any other generation… many different ideologies and everything like that. But I think I do 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 for “ending 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 fire drills.”
“We’ve seen these things and been wondering our whole lives as young people, in high school, middle school and elementary school, why? Why is this happening? Why have we not fixed this? And now we’re at a place where we can vote and we can run, and we’re going to do it,” he said.