Frost has been endorsed by notable progressives such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, and he had raised $1.5 million through August 3, more than any other candidate in the field, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
In New Hampshire, former Trump aide Karoline Leavitt and state Rep. Tim Baxter, who are seeking GOP nomination in the state’s 1st District, are both Gen Zers. Earlier this summer, two Gen Z candidates lost their primaries: Democrat Ray Reed in Missouri’s 2nd District and Republican Matt Foldi in Maryland’s 6th.
“We have people in Washington, DC who have clung to power twice as long as I’ve been alive,” she said. “My youth is a strength and it can already be seen in the election campaign.”
Leavitt worked as deputy press secretary at the Trump White House under press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and after the 2020 election she served as communications director for New York Rep. Elise Stefanik. She faces a packed GOP field Sept. 13 in her attempt to challenge Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas.
Frost on the campaign trail looked at his youth and said if elected to Congress, he would bring the fervor of Gen Z with him.
“Our generation has been through some of the modern challenges that our country is going through, but we don’t have representation in Congress, and we deserve to be at the table,” he told CNN on Tuesday ahead of the election, adding that the opportunity to be the first Gen Z member of Congress would be “the honor of a lifetime”.
“It’s something that I don’t take lightly,” Frost said of the historic nature of his candidacy. “I’m not saying here that I represent the values and thoughts of every member of Gen Z. We’re like any other generation…many different ideologies and everything like that. But I think I’m holistically representing our lived experience as young people.”
In addition to fighting for gun safety, Frost has championed abortion rights and voting rights with the ACLU of Florida.
Since launching his campaign, he has focused his energy on what he calls the need for “bold change.” His platform includes proposals such as “Medicare for All” and a plan to “end gun violence,” as well as the “climate crisis,” which includes support for the progressive Green New Deal resolution.
Frost described Tuesday growing up as part of the “mass shooting generation” and said, “We are a generation that goes through more school shooting drills than fire drills.”
“We’ve seen these things and wondered all of our lives as young people, in high school, middle school and elementary school, why? Why is this happening? Why haven’t we fixed this? What now we are in a place where we can vote and we can show up, and we will,” he said.
Frost, who spent the summer of 2020 protesting for racial justice following the death of George Floyd, told CNN last year that he was “running for what our generation truly wants and asks for.”
“We often talk about what we need to survive. I want to have a conversation about what we need to thrive,” he said at the time.
This story has been updated.
CNN’s Steve Contorno, Renée Rigdon and Lizzie Jury contributed to this report.