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Raised in an age of political chaos, these candidates see state politics as the solution.
Noah Nordstrom knew he had to run for office when his students kept being killed. In the past several months, three teenagers at the Memphis high school where he teaches have died from gun violence outside of school.
Bryce Berry watched unrest throttle his hometown of Ferguson, Mo., after a police officer killed Michael Brown — a Black teenager like Berry, only five years older than he was.
And Amber Hulse moved to Washington, D.C., to intern at the Trump White House, just months before rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
All three are members of Gen Z who have grown up amid a torrent of challenging circumstances: economic instability, social upheaval and a fractured news landscape, with addictive technology at their fingertips. They represent a trend of young people who are turning their deep dissatisfaction with the status quo into campaign platforms in state legislative races across the country. Gen Z, often defined as people born between 1997 and 2012, makes up around a fifth of the U.S. population and is more diverse and better educated than previous generations. While the oldest Gen Zers are in their mid-to-late twenties, their generation has only one member in the U.S. Congress: Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.).
At the state level, the candidates are kick-starting a career in politics while helping influence the country’s most divisive battles — from reproductive rights to election security.
“I decided to run for office now because I’m really sick and tired of being told to sit here and wait,” said Averie Bishop, 28, a Democrat running for a seat in Texas. “While I may not win, at least I am working hard to challenge the status quo and leave the door a little bit more open for the young people who come after me to run for office.”
The next generation of political leaders is here. They say they’re ready to lead, and they have distinct ideas about how to use the power of public office.
Two classmates believe democracy is on the line. It’s the only thing they agree on.
For three years, Ashwin Ramaswami and Amber Hulse shared the same campus at Georgetown Law School. They juggled law courses, applied for prestigious internships and graduated together in May. They both decided to return to their respective homes — he to Georgia, she to South Dakota — to run for state Senate. And they even share a core campaign issue: democracy.
That’s where their similarities end.
Ramaswami, a Democrat, is challenging incumbent Republican state Sen. Shawn Still, who was indicted alongside former president Donald Trump on charges that he sought to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in his state.
Hulse, a Republican, works for a conservative law firm that represents the Trump campaign on ballot challenges across the country and believes there were legitimate concerns about the 2020 election, despite no evidence supporting claims of fraud.
Now both 25 years old, Ramaswami and Hulse were months away from starting law school when rioters charged the U.S. Capitol, a moment that shaped each of their decisions to run for state office.
Classmates divided
Gen Z is known for its efforts to organize for change outside of traditional political structures, from marches calling for stricter gun control to campus encampments advocating for Palestinian rights.
But in an era of eroding trust in public institutions, the nation’s youngest candidates are embracing — not eschewing — change from within. And they want to be the ones to take the reins on the issues affecting their lives.
Housing is a top issue for Bryce Berry, 23, who is running for a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives. A graduate of Morehouse College, he’s seen the cost of rent force recent graduates out of his state.
“Twenty-two-year-olds are leaving Georgia after they graduate from our top schools,” Berry said, “taking with them their tax dollars, taking with them their work ethic, and their potential.”
Nordstrom, a high school Spanish teacher who has also taught younger students, is determined to improve Tennessee’s education system. He says the combination of disinvestment in public schools and gun violence in Memphis has created devastating conditions for his students. They have lost four classmates in shootings outside of school since December of 2022. And they are forced to learn in classrooms that have mold, cockroaches and too few textbooks.
“Last fall I was teaching and it was a completely chaotic environment,” Nordstrom said. “I wasn’t given textbooks for a whole semester. I didn’t really have any real curriculum. I had classes that averaged about 35 kids per class. ... The AC was broken. I actually had a student pass out in the middle of class because it was so hot and crowded. I could go on and on.”
Education is also a priority for Wyatt Gable, 22, a Republican running to represent his coastal district in the North Carolina House. He wants to implement a mandatory home economics course for high school students to ensure they graduate with practical skills such as financial literacy.
In South Dakota, Hulse is trying to strike a balance: embodying the energy and enthusiasm of a younger generation, while catering to the concerns of a much older voting bloc.
“My district is actually mostly people that are 65 and up,” she said. “Running as a 25-year-old was a very interesting juxtaposition for most of the people that I plan to represent.”
The key to winning them over, she said, is listening to their priorities.
“It’s not that you have to necessarily look like or be the same age as the people you represent. It’s just about making sure that you can understand the issues that they have.”
'My generation was failed'
Nick Jacobson, 23, who is running in rural Pennsylvania for the state House, says his youth is a built-in campaign advantage: He represents the exact younger demographic that his community wants to keep in the area.
“You could talk to almost anybody here and they’ll say … we need young people in the district,” Jacobson said. To do that, he says, his community needs to invest in resources such as broadband and public education.
In North Carolina, Gable is set to win a seat even before he graduates from college. He beat his Republican primary opponent, an 85-year-old state representative who has held the seat for 10 terms, and he is now likely to win the seat in November. Gable says his age turned out to be an advantage because voters were eager for fresh leadership.
He has the support of the pro-Trump Turning Point USA, a dominant force in campus conservatism and Republican organizing. Gable was chapter president for two years at East Carolina University, where he fought against gender-neutral bathrooms.
“A big reason I decided to run for office was because of Turning Point USA. I was able to make a lot of connections, and I use those connections in my run for office,” Gable said.
Gable, Hulse and Caroline Fairly, 25, a Republican running for a Texas state House seat, are among a group of candidates receiving support and promotion from Run GenZ, a conservative organization that helps prepare young Republicans running for office. On the other end of the political spectrum, Berry, Jacobson, Nordstrom, Ramaswami and Bishop were endorsed by progressive groups that recruit and train young people, such as Run for Something and gun control activist David Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve.
'My greatest strength'
Building the name recognition and network required to win over supporters can take time, making it a high barrier to entry for people early in their career, Bishop said.
“A lot of these organizations, these PACs, supporters, don’t take into consideration the invisible challenges that young women of color, or just young people in general, face when fundraising for the first time running for office,” Bishop said.
She didn’t hesitate to name the biggest hurdles: time and money.
“Balancing a full-time 9-to-5 job while also doing 40 hours on a campaign here in Texas is no joke,” Bishop said. “The position of a state House representative is only five months every two years, and we’re paid only $7,000. It’s meant to be a part-time civic engagement. However, ironically enough, it keeps people like myself out from serving our constituents.”
Hulse says there are similar barriers in South Dakota.
“Most of the people that are in office are either business owners or retired,” Hulse said. “It’s hard to get a job, especially as a young person, when you’re just out of school anyway. But then you add the fact of partisan politics on top of that. And when you need a boss to hire you and be okay with you not only running for office, but taking public stances. … It was very difficult.”
Then, there’s having the self-assuredness to run in the first place. Fairly said she worried she wasn’t ready.
“I was not one of those kids who was 15 and thought I was going to run for office. It was not on the agenda. When someone first came to me, I said, no, this is crazy. Like, how old do you have to be to do this?” Fairly said.
'Wait, how old are you?'
As they campaign for seats in states across the country, Gen Z candidates are reflecting on what it means for their name to be on the ballot.
There is growing community and support. Ramaswami and Berry are in a group chat with several other young candidates who are also running for state office in Georgia this year. Bishop says she’s received messages from many young people who say her candidacy has encouraged them to explore a run for office.
But some Gen Z candidates also hope their age is a call to action for older elected officials — a reminder to pass on their knowledge and make space for their younger counterparts, who will carry their institutions and ideas into the future.
“We are dealing with these issues every single day that the old generation’s leaving for us,” Berry said. “We have the solutions in our hands. We know what needs to be done.”
'Leaders who are one of us'
About this story
Editing by Libby Casey and Annah Aschbrenner. Video editing by Anna Liss-Roy. Design editing by Betty Chavarria and Madison Walls. Copy editing by Kathryn Wenner and Feroze Dhanoa. Design and development by Agnes Lee. Video contributed by Averie Bishop, Bryce Berry, Caroline Fairly and Wyatt Gable.
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