The 2024 election season is well underway, and while much of the national debate is focused on octogenarian candidates and their fitness to serve, there are a number of candidates who are 26 and younger vying to represent their communities in Congress.
The Constitution says you must be 25 years old to serve in the House of Representatives, which means this is the second year in which Gen Z candidates can run for federal office. Last year, Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida, became the first Gen Z'er elected to Congress. He’s an outlier in a body of representatives that is overwhelmingly old. In fact, the 118th Congress — where the median age is 59 — is one of the oldest on record.
Still, the House leans slightly younger than the Senate (senators must be at least 30 years old), and today’s youngest candidates are hoping to bring fresh perspectives, youth, and perhaps a bit of skepticism about the federal government’s efficacy to the chamber.
Whether it's abortion access, gun safety, climate action, or voting rights, this cycle’s youngest candidates are leaning into issues they’ve experienced firsthand and are top of mind for members of their generation. Despite growing up on opposite sides of the country, these candidates, all of whom are Democrats so far, agree that today’s problems are too dire to ignore. In launching their individual campaigns, they each speak to a sense of urgency in combating the issues.
Joe Vogel
Delegate Joe Vogel of Maryland — who’s running for Congress in the state’s sixth district, an open seat — announced his campaign with a video set in a high school, where he says his passion for politics started. As the youngest Maryland General Assembly delegate, the 26-year-old has sponsored bills to routinely test for and track fentanyl as part of urine drug screenings in hospital patients, block the sale of diet pills to teenagers, boost climate sector jobs, and more. He has also aimed to bolster mental health resources in schools and cosponsored a bill that would create a commission to study, and provide recommendations on, mental health resources in higher education institutions.
“I'm not just going up to the young folks and saying, ‘Hey, get involved in our campaign, volunteer in our campaign.' I have results to show,” Vogel tells Teen Vogue. “I know how harmful the status quo of our politics is to so many and the expectations of waiting your turn.”
Vogel was elected to the State House of Delegates in 2022; he recognizes that for a young politician like himself, the traditional trajectory includes spending 10 to 15 years in the state legislature before potentially running for higher office: “You think about what 10 to 15 years means in the fight for our democracy and… in the fight for our planet… when it comes to the gun violence epidemic or the mental health crisis or any of the other issues that we face…. We can't wait 10 to 15 more years on so many issues.”
Vogel continues, “We have a closing window of time to address these crises, and if we fail in these next 10 to 15 years, we’re going to deal with the consequences of that…. Now is really the time.”
So far, Vogel has racked up endorsements from Democratic representatives Ritchie Torres, Mark Takano, and Becca Balint, and groups like the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund and College Democrats of America. Voters of Tomorrow has also endorsed Vogel, though, notably, the organization has put its endorsement behind all three Gen Z candidates mentioned in this story.
In a surprise for those who doubted Vogel's candidacy because of his youth, he said, he’s raised the most money of any candidate in the field as of last quarter, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.
Cheyenne Hunt
Cheyenne Hunt, an attorney, advocate, and TikTok star, cut her teeth as a grassroots organizer working on getting dark money out of politics. Since then, she’s spent time on Capitol Hill as a law and policy clerk for Sen. Amy Klobuchar, where she worked on building the first impeachment case against then President Donald Trump and on technology policy while pushing for Big Tech accountability. Formerly, Hunt worked at Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. Now, she’s running for Congress in California’s 45th district, a seat currently held by GOP Rep. Michelle Steel, who’s running for reelection.
The 26-year-old tells Teen Vogue that her decision to run is a response to the urgency of “a number of existential threats.” Hunt explains further, “Young folks, our generations, have been forced to watch while idle politicians allow this backsliding on their watch and are not being good stewards of the future that they're passing on for us. Whether it's the environment, women's bodily autonomy, the economy, and leaving behind an economy that works for a handful of folks at the top and is wringing the rest of us out to dry, these are issues that really get to the core of our fundamental rights and longevity on this planet.”
Hunt has over 91,000 followers on TikTok and 3.7 million likes on the platform. She has posted while on a picket line at a strike on Labor Day, shown her followers the shoes she wears while on the campaign trail, and regularly responds to national political news of the day. Says Hunt, “[Social media] is something that’s definitely a huge asset for us because we’re talking to people where they are.”
But despite her ability to connect with younger audiences, experience, and success in raising the most money of any candidate in her primary race so far, according to data from the Federal Election Commission, Hunt says her campaign has faced skepticism, “bias, sexism, and misogyny.” “It is interesting to see the way that misogyny compounds when it's not just running as a woman, but running as a young woman,” points out Hunt, who could be the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress.
Isaiah Martin
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Twenty-five-year-old community advocate Isaiah Martin is running for Congress in Texas’s 18th district, a seat currently held by his old boss, Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who’s running for mayor of Houston.
“We’re at a crossroads right now," Martin tells Teen Vogue via email of his decision to run for Congress. “Voting is becoming more restrictive, our rights are slipping away, and more classrooms are becoming crime scenes. We can either meet the gravity of this moment with fear or with strength through being relentless — I choose the latter.”
Martin continues, "I refuse to sit on the sidelines during the contest that will decide the fate of my generation, my parents’ generation, and all those that will come after us.”
Earlier this year, Martin ran for Houston City Council, but later dropped out of the race. He’s currently a consultant “specializing in the procurement of large-scale aerospace government contracts,” according to his website.
Martin, who calls Texas “ground zero of voter suppression,” prioritizes voting rights. His website mentions his work as an undergrad at the University of Houston and the president of on-campus student advocacy group, #FortheStudents, where, according to the site, he helped make the football stadium a polling site in 2020. His website states that he also worked to boost Covid vaccine rates among college students, provide resources for survivors of sexual assault, combat food insecurity, and supply students with water after the 2021 Texas freeze.
In a district with a large population of college students, Martin says, when it comes to issues top of mind for young people, he’s focused on mental health resources on campuses, reproductive rights, the cost of rent, and barriers to home ownership. Beyond that, he mentions Gen Z’s entrepreneurial spirit, which he believes isn’t talked about enough. “Almost everywhere I go, students tell me they want to start a business of their own at some point," Martin says. "We have to make [the Small Business Administration] more engaging for young entrepreneurs so they can get the resources they need to build a solid foundation.”
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