| Hello Rulers! I’m happy to be back as your guest host today. Happy (almost) Mother's Day! Send me feedback or story ideas to kpechenkina@politico.com or @KatiaPechenkina. Last year Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) made headlines when he became the first ever Gen Z legislator to be elected to Congress at the age of 25, the minimum age to requirement for the representatives. (There is no upper limit!) But Congress still has a representation problem when it comes to age. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, while the House of Representatives is getting a little younger - the median age of lawmakers in the 118th Congress is 57.9 years, down from 58.9 in the 117th class — the Senate is getting older. There, the median age rose from 64.8 to 65.3 years. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who is now 33 years old, remains the youngest woman in Congress. Although over 70 Gen Z legislators currently serving in state capitals all over the country, there is still no Gen Z woman representative in Washington D.C. Cheyenne Hunt, a 25-year-old California attorney and activist, hopes to change that. Hunt works as a Big Tech Accountability Advocate for Public Citizen, specializing in drafting legislation aimed at holding tech companies accountable. If elected, Hunt would be the first Gen Z woman to serve in Congress. “It’s time to make a change, and Gen Z isn’t waiting,” the Democrat wrote in her Twitter announcement message. She launched her campaign last month, running to represent the state’s 45th Congressional District, which includes parts of both Los Angeles and Orange counties. She’s facing stiff competition: There are already two other Democratic candidates in the race to flip the seat currently occupied by Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), who won her second term in November over Democratic candidate Jay Chen. I spoke with her about what matters to young voters, why she thinks Gen Z has it harder than other generations — and what older politicians get wrong. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity. You have been an attorney and an activist. What inspired you to go into politics? I grew up with my single mother and her single mother, and they were descendants of Syrian refugees, and I was lucky to have such incredible examples of strong determined women in my life. I definitely watched the way that policy impacts opportunity, especially for women, especially for working people growing up, and once I as an attorney, went on to work in Capitol Hill, I saw just all the ways that the system reinforces those barriers for people and it definitely inspired me to get up and get involved. If elected to Congress, you would be the first Gen Z woman representative. More and more young people are entering politics and running for office. How do you plan to bring the values of your generation to Congress? I think that there's a lot that our generation has to offer and a lot of things that we are angry about and we're passionate about, and we think that inaction is immoral. Climate is a big part of that. We grew up watching the adults in the room prioritize pretty much everything else other than the fate of our ability to live on this planet. I think that we also were the first generation to grow up doing active shooter drills all the way back to kindergarten. Women's rights are on the chopping block and I think young people are actively aware of the fact that these rights that our mothers and grandmothers fought for, are something that we're really going to have to jump in and protect. And lastly, I think young people are really worried about the economy. We are one of the first American generations in a long, long time, to deeply believe that we are not going to be able to live a life better than — let alone be as good as — our parents. How does all of this compare to what matters to older generations? I've had conversations with folks in my family and folks in the community, and it's really difficult for them to understand our lived experience. Many of them when they went to college, you could pay for a semester of college with the earnings from your summer job, and not like at a community college, I'm talking about like UC Berkeley, UCLA. That's not the world we live in now. I think that older generations just don't necessarily know how bad it's gotten for young people and how little opportunity there is compared to what they had and what the economy looked like for them when they were our age. What do you think older generations of politicians get wrong? I think frankly, a lot of our politicians are really captured by special interests and by corporate donors. We live in a world where … our representatives [are incentivized] to be answerable to those who give them the most money, not those in the communities that they represent. And it's something that generates the kind of inaction that we see on these issues, because it would actually require potentially voting against the interests of very wealthy donors that are able to fund these campaigns. Do you think there should be a mandatory retirement age for politicians? I don't think that an age limit is necessarily appropriate. If at any age you can demonstrate that you have the wherewithal to do the job and you can be democratically elected. That should be allowed. But what I do think is necessary — to prevent the kind of entrenchment and corporate capture that we were just talking about — is term limits. And term limits also would prevent people from coming into the job at 30 and staying until they're 80. So I think it's kind of a two birds with one stone policy solution. Would you introduce this kind of legislation? Absolutely.
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