Maxwell Alejandro Frost made history in 2022 when he was elected the first member of Generation Z to the U.S. Congress, representing Florida’s 10th House District. He was the youngest to ever win, being 25 years old (the minimum age requirement to run). But this wasn’t out of the norm for Frost.

“I’ve been the youngest person in the room in all my jobs,” Frost said. “I started working in politics fresh out of high school at 18.”

And before that, he had been organizing since age 15, putting in work for Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign, Hilary Clinton’s campaign in 2016, Bernie Sanders, and the Newtown Action Alliance. But being a young Floridian doesn’t come without its stereotypes.

“I’m trying to rebrand what Florida Man means,” Frost said. “Anytime I go to D.C., people are kind of clowning me for being from Florida. But we’re fighting the climate crisis, to end gun violence, for working people.”

Generation Z is a label as well as a time frame of birth and labels have a way of sticking in ways you don’t want them to; a sticky residue that remains.

“I never say I’m the representative of Gen Z, because I represent this district first and foremost.” Frost said. “I don’t take myself that seriously, but I take my job that seriously. I don’t go to Congress like ‘let me Gen Z this up’.”

From his childhood to his teenage years to his professional life, Frost has lived a life similar to many others in their 20s.

“Growing up, I had a very obsessive personality,” he said. “I’d watch a Disney Channel movie about cooking, and I wanted to be a chef for like two months.”

Though not a chef, he does enjoy food. And the act of eating during mealtimes outweighs the pressure of work.

“Sometimes in a day, my eating time is the only time I have to myself,” he said. “I don’t believe in working dinners or anything like that. It’s either a time to fellowship with other people or a time for me to sit with myself.”

He, like 80% of Americans, exists in the cyberspace realm of social media, as well. Frost’s Instagrams have a combined 130.4K followers.

“I hate Elon Musk, but I’m still on Twitter for work,” Frost said. “Personally, I’m on TikTok a lot, even though TikTok has not been hitting as much. I’m on Reels a lot, or YouTube Shorts.”

Despite a school life of trouble making and joking, Frost has made a career out of so-called ‘childish’ pastimes.

“I was a troublemaker, always yapping too much, making jokes,” he said. “Now I get paid to yap.”

On Capitol Hill, the 435 members of the House of Representatives meet, making and passing federal laws. The average age of the 118th Congress is 58, marking 31 years older than Frost is today.

“I don’t want people thinking I’m a stuck-up kid who thinks I know everything,” Frost said. “That’s a stigma that I had to battle in my professional career.”

Yet Frost’s youth does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other Gen Z-ers, who are skeptical of the high ages of Congress.

“This is a representative government, it’s supposed to look like the country.” he said in response to the internet’s aversion to representatives over the age of 60. “We need people who know what it means to grow old.”

The work of a Congressman doesn’t just exist in D.C., though. In his hometown of Orlando, Florida, Frost and his team work to represent the constituents of District 10.

“I feel like we helped make a difference with Hurricane Milton,” Constituent Advocate Kyle Thorpe said. “It caused a lot of damage, and we got a lot of calls from constituents who didn’t know how to deal with that.”

Being the youngest member of Congress- and the only member of a generation- comes with the weight of representing far more people than just a single Congressional District.

“I come as my authentic self with my lived experiences, which whether you’re a Gen Z-er who’s conservative or progressive, we’re still going to have some shared experiences,” Frost said.

Shared experiences that involve the consequences of actions performed by the generations that have come before.

“We have a sense of urgency here that I’m very proud of,” District Director Jason Henry said. “It is Gen Z and Gen Alpha that are going to have to deal, unfortunately, with the outcome of our former inaction. We have to leave the world better than we found it.”

Blending professionalism and novelty in the federal domain is a daunting task when surrounded by politicians, the experienced, and the opinionated. But Frost is not alone. His team, staff, and supporters all stand with him in his career. His generation title doesn’t define him as strongly as the media suggests.

“I don’t think I’m the Gen Z representative,” Frost said. “I bring that to the table, but there’s a lot of other things I bring as well.”

Maxwell Alejandro Frost brings his perspective as a young man. As a man of color. As someone who has been through hardship and can use it for the benefit of others.

“Being a man of color, oftentime that vulnerability is not invited, and it’s even shamed,” Frost said. “We need people who can be in touch with their own vulnerabilities and put that out for people to see, in our politics, government, and business.”

Frost may be the first Gen Z in Congress, but he certainly won’t be the last.

This story was originally published on Oviedo Journalism on November 21, 2024.