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Maxwell Frost

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For the American musician, see Max Frost.
Maxwell Frost
Member-elect of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Florida's 10th district
Assuming office
January 3, 2023
SucceedingVal Demings
Personal details
Born
Maxwell Alejandro Frost

(1997-01-17) January 17, 1997 (age 27)
Political partyDemocratic
EducationValencia College
WebsiteCampaign website

Maxwell Alejandro Frost (born January 17, 1997)[1][2] is an American activist and politician. He is the Representative-elect for Florida's 10th congressional district, having won the 2022 election as the Democratic nominee. He was previously the national organizing director for March for Our Lives.

He is the first person from Generation Z to be elected and the second born in the 1990s after Madison Cawthorn.[3]

Early life

Frost was born on January 17, 1997 to a Cuban woman of Lebanese descent and a Haitian man.[4][5] His biological mother had several children and had been experiencing violence.[6] He was adopted as an infant; his adoptive mother is a special education teacher, who migrated to the United States from Cuba in the Freedom Flights, and his adoptive father is a musician from Kansas.[7] He reconnected with his birth mother in June 2021.[7][8] Frost attended Osceola County School for the Arts in Kissimmee, Fl.[9] As of June 2022, he is enrolled as a student at Valencia College.[7]

Early career

Frost has been organizing since around 2012, when he was active with Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign.[10][9] He also volunteered with the Newtown Action Alliance, an organization created in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.[7] He has identified Occupy Wall Street, the Columbine High School massacre, the killing of Trayvon Martin, and the Orlando nightclub shooting as events that affected his thinking.[11] He later worked for Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Margaret Good.[8] Frost was formerly a pro-Palestine activist and held pro-Palestinian beliefs before reversing his foreign policy position in 2022.[12]

Frost survived an incident of gun violence at a Halloween event in Downtown Orlando in 2016.[7][13]

Frost was an organizer with the American Civil Liberties Union and worked to support Florida's 2018 Amendment 4 and to pressure Joe Biden to stop supporting the Hyde Amendment in 2019.[7] He was the national organizing director for March for Our Lives.[7][14] In November 2021, Frost was arrested at a voting rights rally in Lafayette Square led by William Barber II and Ben Jealous.[15]

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

See also: 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Florida § District 10

In August 2021, Frost announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Florida's 10th congressional district.[16] During the primary campaign, he released a television ad in Spanglish, telling The Hill, "Latinos are in a place where their first language is Spanish but they speak English as well, and quite frankly that's me ... We speak Spanglish in the house, and I know that's the same for a lot of Latino families in the district."[17]

Frost defeated state Senator Randolph Bracy and former U.S. Representatives Alan Grayson and Corrine Brown, among others, in the August 23, 2022, primary.[18] Due to the district's Democratic tilt, Frost was expected to win the general election in November;[19] if elected, he would be the youngest member of Congress, the first Generation Z member of Congress, and the first Afro-Cuban member of Congress.[7][14][20][21] He was endorsed by numerous national and local political figures, including Jesse Jackson, former NAACP President Ben Jealous, civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, and U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.[22] Frost's election makes him the first member of Generation Z elected to Congress.[23]

Political positions

Environment

Frost supports a Green New Deal.[7] He has identified environmental justice as a priority of his campaign.[5][8]

Guns

Frost advocates for gun control.[5][8]

Healthcare

Frost supports single-payer healthcare and investing in pandemic prevention.[5][7][8]

Criminal justice

Frost wants to "build toward a future without prison."[7] He supports decriminalizing sex work and marijuana use.[8][24]

Foreign policy

Frost endorses a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and has indicated his intent to travel to Israel to promote "US leadership in bringing peace to a region that so desperately needs and deserves it."[25][26] He has called himself both "pro-Israel and pro-Palestine."[25][26][27] He supports U.S. military aid to Israel.[25][26][28] He has criticized the Palestinian Authority's martyr's fund that compensates the families of dead and wounded militants, likening it to a recruitment tactic of Hamas for the purpose of committing politically motivated violence against Israel.[25][28] Frost vehemently opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, accuses it of harboring leadership from terrorist organizations, and suggests that businesses that participate in BDS should in turn be divested.[25][26][28]

In early August 2022, the Jewish news website Jewish Insider published a candidate questionnaire from Frost's congressional campaign that showed a shift in Frost's foreign policy positions on Israel and Palestine.[28] Frost had formerly participated in pro-Palestine activism, but Jewish Insider characterized his responses as a reversal that distanced himself from his past while declaring an aggressive stance against the BDS movement, calling for military aid to Israel, and stating his opposition to anti-Zionism.[26] His campaign later released a position paper that formalized these positions.[25][28][29]

Personal life

Frost speaks Spanish and English.[17] He is a jazz drummer and plays the timbales.[9][14] His nine-member high school band Seguro Que Sí (Spanish: "of course") performed in the parade during Obama's second inauguration in 2013.[9][30]

Electoral history

See also

References

  1. ^ Parrow, Kyra (May 5, 2022). "UCF students fuel power into midterm campaign for Generation Z running candidate". NSM Today. Archived from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  2. ^ "Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
  3. ^ "Florida Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost becomes first Gen Z candidate to win House seat". PBS NewsHour. November 8, 2022.
  4. ^ Bernal, Rafael (August 24, 2022). "Who is Maxwell Alejandro Frost, the 25-year-old Democratic House nominee?". The Hill. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d McMenamin, Lexi (November 8, 2021). "Candidates to Watch in the 2022 Midterms". Teen Vogue. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  6. ^ Sotomayor, Marianna (September 3, 2022). "Maxwell Frost is figuring out how to be Gen Z's likely first congressman". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Metzger, Bryan (May 28, 2022). "Meet the 25-year-old gun violence prevention advocate who could become the first Gen Z member of Congress". Business Insider. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Lipson, Molly (March 31, 2022). "For This 25-Year-Old Running For Congress, Friends Are The Key To His Campaign". Elite Daily. Retrieved June 30, 2022.
  9. ^ a b c d Allen, Greg (January 20, 2013). "A High School Salsa Band In The Inaugural Parade? 'Of Course!'". NPR. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  10. ^ "24-year-old running for Congress: Need to honor those "killed due to senseless gun violence"". MSNBC.com. September 24, 2021. 0:00. Retrieved June 30, 2022.
  11. ^ Moore, Elena (July 6, 2022). "The first Gen Z candidates are running for Congress — and running against compromise". WBUR. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  12. ^ Farooq, Umar A. (August 29, 2022). "How Florida progressive Maxwell Frost courted Palestinians, then abandoned them". Middle East Eye. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  13. ^ Bernal, Rafael (May 9, 2022). "Hispanic Caucus endorses two front-runners for House seats". The Hill. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  14. ^ a b c McQuilkin, Hilary; Chakrabarti, Meghna (December 6, 2021). "Are U.S. elected officials getting too old?". WBUR-FM. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  15. ^ Powers, Scott (November 19, 2021). "Congressional candidate Maxwell Frost arrested at Washington protest". Florida Politics. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  16. ^ Lemongello, Steven (August 11, 2021). "Gun reform activist Maxwell Frost announces run for Congress to succeed Val Demings". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on August 12, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  17. ^ a b Bernal, Rafael (August 19, 2022). "Florida Democrat releases Spanglish ad". The Hill. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  18. ^ Swisher, Skyler (August 23, 2022). "Maxwell Frost, 25-year-old activist, likely headed to Congress after primary win". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on August 24, 2022. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  19. ^ Elena, Moore (August 23, 2022). "Maxwell Frost, one of the first Gen Z candidates for Congress, has won his primary". NPR. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  20. ^ Galbraith, Alex (July 3, 2022). "Democratic congressional candidate Maxwell Frost confronts Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during Orlando show". Orlando Weekly. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  21. ^ Rozsa, Lori; Weigel, David (August 24, 2022). "Who is Maxwell Frost, the Gen Z Democratic nominee in Florida?". Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 24, 2022. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  22. ^ "Endorsements". Maxwell Frost for Congress. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  23. ^ Anderson, Curt (November 8, 2022). "Florida Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost becomes first Gen Z candidate to win House seat". PBS NewsHour. PBS. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  24. ^ Alund, Natalie Neysa (August 24, 2022). "At 25, Maxwell Frost could be first Gen Z member elected to Congress". USA TODAY. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  25. ^ a b c d e f "A Two-State Solution: The Path Towards Peace" (PDF). Maxwell Frost for Congress. August 10, 2022. Retrieved November 9, 2022 – via Jewish Insider.
  26. ^ a b c d e "Maxwell Frost Jewish Insider Questionnaire" (PDF). Jewish Insider. August 10, 2022. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  27. ^ Samuels, Ben (August 24, 2022). "Pro-Israel Candidates Win Key Primaries in New York, Florida". Haaretz. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  28. ^ a b c d e Kassel, Matthew (August 11, 2022). "Gen Z progressive says he's 'pro-Israel' and 'pro-Palestinian'". Jewish Insider. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  29. ^ Plitnick, Mitchell (August 25, 2022). "Maxwell Frost abandoned Palestine on his way to Democratic primary victory". Mondoweiss. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  30. ^ Rodriguez, Sabrina (August 23, 2022). "'The Future We Deserve': This Florida Gen Z Candidate Thinks He Can Chart a New Path For the Youth". Politico. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
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