Faith,
Since we launched Leaders We Deserve last year, there is one question that I keep getting asked. It's a question I've been getting asked regularly since I started my activism with March For Our Lives, where we were an organization run by young people.
"If you want more young people in office, why do you support Joe Biden?"
Leaders We Deserve is not about young people vs. old people — it's always been about making sure Gen Z and Millennials have representation that reflects that we make up a third of the country's population.
In fact, throughout our country's history, we've had a number of leaders who are remembered as being an older person, but started their activism at a young age.
These are exactly the kind of folks we want to elect more of: People like John Lewis, who ran for office as a young person on a mission to make urgently needed change, and ended up being one of the most important and effective leaders we've ever had in our country.
The reality is that there have always been too many barriers to entry in public service in order to elect young leaders in the numbers we deserve, and our organization was founded precisely to help young candidates overcome those barriers.
After devastating losses in 2016, the blue wave in 2018 brought the Democratic Party a new appreciation for the impact young people can make at the polls. Then in 2020, Joe Biden was elected thanks in large part to huge turnout from Millennial and Gen Z voters — a leader who started his career incredibly young at just 29 in the Senate and has morphed into one of the most effective presidents of my lifetime so far.
I believe the decades of experience he has in the Senate plus his perseverance through major personal loss has made him so empathic and successful at passing major climate, infrastructure, and gun safety legislation with razor thin margins.
In 2022, young people reaffirmed our power at the ballot box, turning out in big numbers once again to hold off the much-touted "red wave" that never materialized. Newly elected young folks like Justin Jones in Tennessee and Maxwell Frost in Florida made waves. We also elected our first Leaders We Deserve endorsed candidate: Nadarius Clark in Virginia!
It's not just Gen Z and Millennials who stand to benefit from electing more young people, it's the entire country and our future. Starting young takes advantage of the most powerful thing anyone can have on their side in politics: time. Gen Z will outlive most people on Capitol Hill, the question is how soon we can come into power.
More updates soon,
David Hogg
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