Gen Z Republicans Face Tough Odds

Joe Mitchell is 29 and running for Congress in Iowa.

The race is a tossup as voters grow unhappy with President Trump. Mitchell has the president's endorsement. If he wins, he joins a new group of Gen Z Republicans in Washington.

Only a few other young Republicans are running this fall. One candidate is in a safe red district. The others are in blue seats where they are unlikely to win.

Mitchell says voters want hope and young leaders. He is a former state senator and real estate developer. He supports term limits for House members. He also wants to ban congressional stock trading. He has rejected money from corporate PACs.

Mitchell calls this an anti-corruption platform. He says it matches the concerns of Americans under 30. Those voters worry about their economic future and do not trust institutions.

Maxwell Frost is the only Gen Z member in the House. He is a 29-year-old Democrat from Florida. Two more young candidates are expected to win on Tuesday. Melat Kiros, 29, is favored in Colorado. Michael Alfonso, 26, is expected to win in Wisconsin.

Alfonso is married to the daughter of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. If elected, Alfonso will be the first person born in the 2000s to serve in Congress. He called his age his greatest advantage in a recent interview.

Running for Congress in one's 20s is rare. The House requires a minimum age of 25. Gen Z voters only recently became eligible. A report from Future Caucus says 4% of congressional candidates this cycle are Gen Z. This group is the least likely to win primaries.

Most Gen Z candidates this year ran as Democrats. Under a third filed as Republicans. Adam Pennings leads Run Gen Z, an organization founded by Mitchell. The group helps young conservatives. Pennings says the party needs to build a bench of future leaders.

Run Gen Z endorsed more than 220 candidates in late October. The list includes Mitchell and Alfonso. It also includes Riley Owen, a 28-year-old Republican in Utah. Owen is running in a district that favors Democrats. He says people want new faces and fresh ideas.

Owen believes the conservative movement has a bright future. He argues that voters want to start businesses and families. He says the party must provide solutions for these goals.

Mitchell says the future of the Republican Party is an America First party. He says younger candidates are asking how policies help the American people. He believes Vice President JD Vance and Trump's cabinet share this view. The term America First is debated within the GOP. Factions clash over the war with Iran. Mitchell has not opposed the war. He says Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. He does not support endless wars. He says Trump's agenda fits his definition of America First. He notes that people interpret the phrase in different ways.