Jayden Speed is counting down the days this spring — not just to graduation, but to Election Day. The senior at George Washington University is running to become Nebraska’s youngest state senator in history. His final semester has consisted of long days studying, traveling across Nebraska’s District 2, town halls, and more — all culminating in one week, with the primary on May 12 and GW commencement only five days later.
“When I’m not sleeping, I’m either doing campaign work or doing homework or in class,” the 21-year-old political science and public policy student tells Her Campus in an exclusive interview. “There was a time that I was also working a part-time job, and I’ve kind of wrapped that up now as we get closer to the election, but [there’s still] not a lot of free hours in my day.”
Speed’s campaign is centered on bringing “The Good Life”— which he defines as access to jobs and education, and the ability to buy a house — to Gen Z, and to return it to all Nebraskans. “We’re seeing increasingly with our generation and with the current generation of workers that it has become so much harder to get to what is thought of as the American dream, or The Good Life,” Speed says. “The Good Life to me is really that you have these opportunities, and you have the ability. If you’re going to work hard and contribute to our community, you’re going to find success and you’re going to be able to live a good life.” This includes defending public education, raising the minimum wage (which Nebraska did in 2022, but rolled back for teen workers in 2025), reforming tax codes, and investing in paid family leave and universal Pre-K.
For Speed, whose family used various state aid programs when he was growing up, making investments into the livelihood of Nebraskans is personal. “My motivation for running really comes from my upbringing. As somebody that grew up poor, we knew what it was like to struggle,” Speed says. “We know how hard it is for working families right now that really pushed me into politics at a young age. I started attending legislative hearings, attending protests, working on campaigns when I was 13.”
With state legislatures becoming testing grounds for increasing anti-LGBTQ+ policies, Speed — who was endorsed by the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund — hopes to push back and send a message that Gen Z “isn’t going to stand for that kind of nonsense.” The American Civil Liberties Association is tracking over 570 anti-queer bills in state legislatures, with six in Nebraska. It doesn’t stop there, Speed says: Laws and policies targeting communities are coming in across the country and on the federal level. Speed envisions a future that looks different. “The country we want [and] the state that we want [are] going to be a place that’s welcoming for everyone,” Speed says. “Where we can all have that opportunity at the American dream, or the Good Life, or whatever you want to call it, where we can live and thrive in this country and in our state without oppression.”
Nebraska’s state legislature primary is non-partisan; this means that all candidates for a state senate seat compete in the same primary, unattached to any particular political party. Speed says this allows space for discussion of actual issues, not partisan attacks in a world already filled with polarization and gridlock. “In this country and in our state especially, we’re facing real challenges,” Speed says. “We should really be coalescing around policy, around issues.”
Come May 12, the two candidates who get the most votes in the primary will move on to the general election in November. Whatever the outcome, though, Speed hopes his campaign shows that you don’t have to be a wealthy businessman, lawyer, or at least 40 to run for state office. Bringing young voices into policymaking, he believes, will lead to better policy.
“We need more people that look like their communities, that bring differing perspectives, to start infiltrating and running for school boards and state legislatures and federal offices,” Speed says. “If we can inspire more people, I think that’s a job well done.”
These responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Top three issues you’re running on?
We’re talking about creating a fairer tax code, defending our public schools, and then finally, trying to improve life for working people through child care, affordable housing, paid family leave and the minimum wage, those basket of policies.
What’s your go-to hype song?
Let’s go with Taylor Swift. I really like the 1989 album. It’s a good one. “New Romantics” is good. And so is “Welcome to New York.”
Smith Falls State Park or the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium?
Oh, the zoo! It’s one of the biggest zoos in the world. They keep switching between first and second, but it’s a great zoo. It’s in Omaha.
One thing you absolutely need to get through your day?
Usually, an iced coffee. I am very heavily reliant on caffeine.
What’s your order?
I like the brown sugar espressos, like the brown sugar and oat milk.
Do you want Coke, soda, or pop?
Nobody in Nebraska calls it a Coke. It’s just a pop.