Maxwell Frost, a self-described progressive Democrat, according to The Hill, will soon announce his candidacy for Florida Democratic Rep. Val Demings' seat on Wednesday. Frost will be in a race amongst several others to replace the congresswoman in 2022.
If elected, the 24-year-old could be one of the first members of Generation Z to hold a seat in the House of Representatives.
Frost maintains that the core issues he's campaigning on are gun violence, "environmental justice," Medicare for all, and reimagining the criminal justice system.
"Every two years every community has an opportunity to send a different type of politician to Congress and we've seen people doing this across the nation with folks like AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and [Rep.] Cori Bush. Now," Frost says, "we have an open seat here where we have an opportunity to elect another person to Congress who's going to fight for folks who are suffering."
But Frost's run under the progressive banner is noteworthy of a string of losses for the group running in Democratic primaries. So far, progressives have lost to centrist Democrats in Ohio's 11th Congressional District, the New York City mayoral primary, the Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary, and special House elections in Louisiana's 2nd District and New Mexico's 1st District.
"I stand for a lot of progressive ideals," Frost adds, "but the way we're coming at this campaign, I think, is going to feel a little different than what we've been used to on the progressive side. What I mean by that is I'm not challenging someone. This is an open seat. I am a son of this district, born and raised here. I'm someone who's been doing this work for a while in establishment circles that might not agree with me fully on specific measures that we need to take."
So far, Frost is the sixth Democrat to vie for the seat. Other candidate running include Sen. Randolph Bracy, the Rev. Terence Gray, civil rights attorney Natalie Jackson, Jack Achenbach, and Teresa Tachon.
Currently, Demings is challenging Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for his seat in 2022.
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