Gen Z is a generation of changemakers. They have changed workplace culture, made way for open conversations on mental health, and led protests against climate change and the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Now, they are fighting for their voices to be heard in politics as they run for office, such as congressional candidate Maxwell Frost.
Frost is running for Florida’s 10th congressional district, and if he’s elected, he will be the first Gen Z member in Congress. The Florida Congressional Primary will take place on August 23. From his story to his values, Maxwell is making change for the current generation and generations to come.
Gun violence is an issue at the forefront of Frost’s campaign.
His journey leading up to running for Congress started with a monumental event for many Americans —- the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. Frost tells Her Campus, “Before every jazz band concert (yes, I was a band nerd) my best friend and I would go to this store across the street and load up on junk food. I looked up at the television screens and saw that somebody walked into an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and murdered a bunch of children and it had a profound impact on my life. I couldn’t think right, I couldn’t play right at the show. I kept thinking about it.”
After witnessing the tragic event, Frost’s fight to make change began. “I actually went to DC for the memorial that was going on for the children, and it was there that I had my call to action. I was sitting across from Matthew Soto who lost his sister, Vicki [a teacher at Sandy Hook], in that same shooting. I remember seeing Matthew at the time, he was 16 years old, crying about his sister who was murdered for just going to school. I’ll be honest, seeing a 16-year-old with a demeanor of a 60-year-old crying over his sister who was murdered for going to school and teaching changed my life. My mom’s a public school educator. She’s actually retiring next year. I thought about my little sister and made the commitment that for the rest of my life, I would fight for a world where no one feels the way I saw Matthew feel that night, and that’s why I decided to get involved in politics.”
Since 2012, gun violence has been Frost’s leading focus in his political journey, but an event in his own life caused gun violence to become a personal issue. In 2016, he became a survivor of gun violence when he was present during a shooting in downtown Orlando, just three months after the Pulse Nightclub shooting. “It just shows that you can fight for something your whole life and think you’ll never be impacted by it,” he adds. “Then, one day you wake up and you are.”
Before running for Congress, Frost worked for the ACLU on amendment four, a ballot referendum that expanded voting rights to over 1.6 million people with previous felonies. After that, he worked for the National ACLU where he fought to protect and expand abortion rights and to protect voting rights, and then went on to work on March For Our Lives.
Frost believes taking action against gun violence starts with passing meaningful legislation and looking at the root cause of the issue and policy failures. The first step, he believes, resides with politicians.
Frost explains, “I think all too often we’re made to believe that a lot of these issues are issues of culture, or this and that. Everything plays a part in it, but at the end of the day, I believe poverty is a policy failure, I believe gun violence is a policy failure. So what we need are our leaders to get up and join in with the rest of our country. The majority of gun owners and Americans are for things like universal background checks. Why don’t we have them? And it’s because of the special interest groups like the NRA that have been fighting tooth and nail to keep the power in their hands and not the power in the hands of the people. So we need politicians to actually listen to folks, be courageous, fight against these special interest groups, and actually do what the people need.”
Gen Z has the power to take action as well, according to Frost. “I come from a movement, the March For Our Lives, that became big because a young Gen Z’er came out and said, ‘We call BS.’ It’s BS that we live in a country where we’re losing so many people due to gun violence. And it’s almost like we have a righteous anger because of the inaction of the people meant to protect us and the people meant to help us. We need to continue that righteous anger. We can’t let up. We have to make sure everybody knows that we believe in this better world and we can get it.”
Frost’s journey has been filled with ups and downs, which has motivated him to try and make the road easier for others.
Though Frost’s experience running for Congress has been rewarding, he admits it has also been challenging at times. He says, “This is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. Usually, people who run for office are already wealthy and already have the connections, the experiences. I didn’t have connections to raise a lot of money, and it’s interesting I say that because we’re actually the candidate that has raised the most money out of anyone in this race. I’m running against people who’ve been in it for a while, but that wasn’t handed to me. I kind of had to make my own magic.”
Frost had to work his way up to be in the position where he is today, but the challenging times have empowered him to make change for others in his shoes. He continues, “I’m just a young Black man in this country. When I quit my job, I had to start Ubering to pay my bills. There was actually a point in this campaign where I was homeless. I didn’t have a house. I wasn’t on the streets, but I was couch surfing for weeks and weeks because my rent went up and the rent hike freeze was taken off here in Florida. Things are difficult in this time, but it’s been an interesting journey and I’m glad I’m here. And once I make it in, I’m gonna fight like hell to make sure it’s easier for people. This should be hard, but it shouldn’t be picking between paying rent and eating food, and deciding that you want to represent your community.”
Frost believes that mobilizing the next generation of voters starts with setting an example.
If Frost is elected, he will be the first member of Gen Z in Congress, and he hopes that other members of Gen Z can look up to what he is doing.
“Getting young people involved in government, getting young people involved in leadership — it’s a broader conversation than just running for Congress. It’s having young people being teachers, having young people being managers at places, and having young people being in positions of leadership in businesses. There’s a lot that goes into this, and I truly believe that our generation is the most progressive, inclusive, and thoughtful generation there is.”
Frost adds that Gen Z “really sees the world through the eyes of the most vulnerable people in our community. When we interject our generation into the leadership of different facets of society, whether it be clergy, churches, schools, different things like that, I think we’re gonna see an overall better world.”
Frost believes motivating the next generation of voters starts with removing the pressure on young people specifically and creating a message that applies to everyone. He says, “What I found is that people — this isn’t just young people, this is everyone — people want something to vote for, not against. People don’t want to be shamed into voting. They want to be inspired into voting.”
Inspiring the next generation of voters also involves politicians painting a picture of a world that the future generation deserves. He continues, “They deserve a world where we have healthcare, a world where the leading cause of death for children isn’t guns, a world where you have the things you need to live your life. And I know it sounds simplistic, but at the end of the day, it is that simplistic…”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.