By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Aug. 23, 2022: Come January, 25-year-old Caribbean American Maxwell Alejandro Frost will likely be the first member of Generation Z elected to Congress.
Frost, whose roots extend to Cuba through his grandmother Yeya won Florida’s 10th Congressional District Democratic primary in Orlando, held Tuesday. He defeated Randolph Bracy, whom much of the party establishment backed, garnering 19,271 votes to Bracy’s 13,711.
Following his projected win, Frost, a first-generation Afro-Cuban American, thanked his community for supporting his campaign.
“WE WON!!! Thank you so much to all of our supporters, endorsers, volunteers, & staff. We won because of our message: Love. That no matter who you are, you deserve healthcare, a livable wage, and to live free from gun violence. We made history tonight. Thank you so much, Orlando,” he posted on Twitter.
Frost was a national organizer for the ACLU and then became the national organizing director of March for Our Lives, a youth-led organization dedicated to ending gun violence.
If he wins in November – when he’ll face military veteran Calvin Wimbish – he will fill the reliably blue seat of Rep. Val Demings, who Tuesday won the Democratic nomination for Florida’s Senate race.
Frost campaigned on key progressive issues, including Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, student debt cancelation and an end to gun violence. He first became involved in political organizing in 2012 while in high school following the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.
“Our generation has been born into a lot of trauma and a lot of civil unrest around people being frustrated with things. And I think because of that, our generation naturally thinks about things in a bit of a different way,” Frost told NPR.
Frost has said he was a “victim of the system and enmeshed in trying circumstances” after his “biological mother was caught in a cycle of drugs, crime, and violence while pregnant.”
“She didn’t have healthcare and wasn’t able to see a doctor even once,” he has revealed “As the mother of seven, she made the difficult decision to put me up for adoption because she lacked the resources to care for and raise another child.”
Frost has also said as a young man, he experienced police abuse firsthand and saw his community ravaged by gun violence.
“And I’ve experienced how working people and people of color are unjustly marginalized and left behind in our society,” he added.
The 2022 election cycle marks the first-time members of Generation Z – those born after 1996 – are eligible to run for seats in the House of Representatives, where legislators must be 25 years old by the time they’re sworn in.
