Cheyenne Hunt says there’s one thing young candidates like herself hear way too often: “Wait your turn.”
But Hunt, a 26-year-old from Fullerton who hopes to be the first Generation Z (someone born from 1997 to the early 2010s) woman elected to Congress, says “the stakes are too high to wait.”
And while they’re on opposite sides of the political spectrum, that’s a sentiment shared by Republican Max Ukropina, a 36-year-old congressional candidate from Costa Mesa. Younger people, Ukropina said, “can’t wait (to run for office) until things have become even worse.”
Hunt and Ukropina agree that their time is now. Hunt is vying for the 45th district held by Republican Rep. Michelle Steel, and Ukropina, a millennial, is shooting for the 47th district being vacated by Democratic Rep. Katie Porter.
They join a growing number of young candidates across the country demanding a seat at the decision-making table.
The number of millennials (people born from 1981 to 1996, as designated by the Pew Research Center) in Congress has gone up in recent years, according to the Pew Research Center. Last year, the first member of Gen Z, Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost, was elected to the House.
Hunt, who became eligible to vote in the 2016 presidential election, said that pivotal moment is “supposed to be exciting,” but young people are going into that experience “hopeless and frustrated.”
The recent law school graduate who was raised in Orange County by a single immigrant mother and grandmother believes Congress needs more young people like her. Her generation, she said, is walking into a very different world than their parents’ and grandparents’.
“They’re staring down the barrel of student loan debt … but the wages are not keeping up in a way that they’re going to be able to sustain those payments and keep food on the table, let alone dream of ever owning a home,” said Hunt. “Women’s bodily autonomy is threatened, climate…
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