When asking children what they want to be when they grow up, you may expect many different answers. A doctor. A teacher. A lawyer. A painter. A musician. But how many want to be a politician? A president? Maybe quite a few. A legislator? Not so much. A state legislator? Almost none.
Layla Zaidane, President & CEO of Future Caucus, explored this topic in her piece published in the latest issue of the Democracy Journal — titled Their Generation: The Promise of Younger Elected Officials. Future Caucus, the largest nonpartisan organization of young lawmakers in the United States, directly engages with over 1,800 millennial and Gen Z elected leaders in Congress and state legislatures to bridge divides and develop innovative policy solutions. The Henry M. Jackson Foundation, a co-partner of the Project for Civic Health, invested in its work during the organization’s early years.
According to Zaidane, fewer young people aspire to be a politician compared to those in older generations. “Only 10 percent of Congress and 25 percent of state legislators are Gen Z or millennials, despite those generations accounting for 43 percent of the population,” she wrote. Though young people tend to be more vocal in expressing their ideals and visions for a better world, not many of them seem interested in running for state and local elected offices.
Yet, young people have great instincts for effective governance. “In 2022, 40% of all bipartisan bills signed into law at the state level were introduced by a Gen Z or millennial legislator,” Zaidane wrote. And those bills are considered as the top priorities in American public policy, including the opioid crisis, maternal healthcare, job creations, etc.
Representative Darya Farivar (D-Seattle), a millennial Iranian-American lawmaker in the Washington State Legislature, described her upbringing very similarly to how Zaidane described hers — growing up in the shadow of 9/11, facing the 2008 housing crisis as well as the Great Recession, and navigating adulthood during the latest global pandemic. Their generation also witnessed firsthand many other institutional and policy issues, such as “skyrocketing housing costs, stagnant wages, record debt, climate catastrophe, police violence, the mass incarceration of communities of color, and a palpable social tension,” according to Rep. Farivar.
Unsurprisingly, these failures drove Rep. Farivar to take charge of policymaking and advocacy work. “I came into my freshman year at the legislature knowing that the status quo doesn’t work and looking for creative ways to serve our communities furthest from privilege,” Rep. Farivar said. “We need to make big changes to how we do our work for the public to see more of the process, make meaningful change, and center our constituents.”
On the other hand, Gen Zers also grew up with many reasons to be less optimistic about the future, such as increased gun violence, worsened climate change, and the government’s uneven response to the global pandemic. However, Zaidane wrote, “Polling continues to show that more than three-quarters of Gen Z say they have a great future ahead of them” — but with an approach that is a lot more personalized than millennials, which explains the rapid growth of “independent” political affiliations in the past decade.
Our conversation with Councilmember Nathan Loutsis, a Gen Z legislator from the City of Kenmore, affirmed Zaidane’s writing. “I think many younger people like myself have been confronted with seemingly insurmountable challenges throughout our lives. We grew up during a recession, were constantly faced with threats of climate change, adapted to a new reality of gun violence, experienced hyper-partisanship both at home and across the nation, and saw the cost of living and inflation grow rapidly as we attempted to establish our careers,” he said. “[But] out of these overhanging challenges has come a certain resiliency, ingenuity, urgency, and desire to make positive change, regardless of party.”
According to Zaidane, Gen Zers’ ability to untangle a “potentially bleak collective future from a positive individual future” came from their upbringing in the digital age. As the most tech-savvy generation to date, they are able to curate their own personal narratives utilizing the Internet’s many different sources, so they are the least likely to depend on the framing or agenda-setting of major TV or radio news networks.
More young people may aspire to hold elected offices if they can see themselves represented by and reflected in those with political power. “As a millennial elected myself, I know the reality and consequences of not having younger voices at the table. Our generation has experienced unprecedented strides and stressors that need to be centered,” said Washington State Senator Yasmin Trudeau (D-Tacoma), naming housing affordability, childcare access, criminal-legal reforms, and unlocking paths to right generational wrongs as some of those stressors. “We need more of us to effectuate solutions that are responsive to everyone’s needs. I hope my involvement can motivate others to join me.”
Zaidane believed that recruiting the youth would definitely help expand the network of young elected officials, but would not solve the root cause. Instead, she argued that the biggest challenge boils down to retention issues, such as toxic polarization, under-resourced workplaces, and low pay.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the average base pay for legislators in 2023 was $43,494; the same source also revealed that the base salary for Washington state legislators in 2023 was $57,876. To put things in perspective, the average annual wage in Washington in 2023 was $89,138, per WA Employment Security Department.
The relatively lower salary of a state legislator may pose a significant barrier for anyone considering running for office, but especially younger generations. Having graduated from college not too long ago, these younger people may seek a more stable income to pay off their student loans, mortgage, or any family expenses.
And lawmaking isn’t even the only job description of state legislators; they’re also responsible for constituent services, public appearances, budget proposals, and media engagements. Not to mention, they may also face additional consequences of being a public figure, including being an open target for public or political attack, hatred, and in some cases, violence. For some people, it may be difficult to justify the $57,876 compensation for all the responsibilities that come with the job.
“It’s tough to attract people my age to the citizen legislature because of the various commitments that come with serving,” said Representative Chris Corry (R-Yakima), another millennial lawmaker in the Washington State Legislature. His initial desire to run for his current position was to help give a voice to those in his generation and figure out solutions to the hurdles they’re currently facing, such as homeownership, raising families, and finding a stable career. “I was fortunate to have the opportunity and the support in my career to do it, which allowed me to step into the arena.”
Furthermore, it is important to recognize the challenges of navigating a work environment that may include angry constituents and politically polarized colleagues. We regularly hear about the political gridlock in Congress, where national debates have become the center of personal attacks and partisan rhetoric.
While the Washington State Legislature is not immune to the same toxic hyper-partisanship and polarization in the government, our state legislators often tend to be willing to work together across the aisle. During the 2024 legislative session, nearly 96 percent of bills passed in 2024 received bipartisan support. Members also acknowledge that despite the differences between the two political parties, they continue to model being “disagree without disagreeable.”
Yet, there remain some negative undertones in the government toward the younger generations, though not necessarily between members of the legislature. “There are some unique challenges to being a young state legislator, but they are more about the lack of time served as a legislator than age,” Rep. Corry added. “We can be seen as inexperienced and often lack institutional knowledge about how things work. That takes time to overcome.”
Maanit Goel served as the President of Legislative Youth Advisory Council (LYAC) during the 2024 legislative session. They represent the official nonpartisan youth advisory body to the state legislature, consisting of 14-18 year old student members from a wide variety of geographic, political, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
While most of the elected officials he interacted with during his time with LYAC were supportive and accommodating, “there have been meetings with officials who don’t take us seriously and assume we are under-informed, especially on key topics such as environmental measures,” Goel said. “Participating in the legislative session as a young person today means getting used to encountering dismissive tones and false kindness.”
Like Goel, Councilmember Loutsis shared similar frustrations. “Sometimes stakeholders or constituents conflate age as a qualification and can’t see me beyond that. Other times, older elected officials may feel a need for me to prove myself as more than a kid and instead as a competent policymaker,” he said.
These challenges, however, encouraged these young people even more to take actions. For Goel, his work in LYAC brought him personal fulfillment and inspired him to someday run for an elected office, driving positive changes across Washington and the U.S. Additionally, both Representative Corry and Councilmember Loutsis stated that their passions for public and community services outweigh the obstacles of being young legislators — and they both believe that their competence and willingness to work with others can overcome those barriers.
Zaidane asserts that if we can provide these young leaders and next-generation politicians with the resources (e.g., increased salary and in-network support systems) they need to thrive, it will allow them to focus on applying their knowledge and skills to the many critical issues that our country faces. To quote Zaidane: “[This support] can enable a thriving pluralism to take root within our democratic institutions, propelling a more representative public policy, a less toxic way of doing politics, and greater public trust in our institutions.”
In other words, policy changes that strengthen the talents in our institutions can strengthen our democracy. And strengthening our democracy is what the Project for Civic Health enthusiastically promotes.
Who knows — maybe we would finally see more “To be a state legislator” answers from children of the future generations (Gen Alpha and beyond) when asked what they’d like to be when they grow up.
To learn more about Zaidane’s policy proposals to support young elected officials, including building support systems and professional development programs within the legislature, making administrative and regulatory changes, and increasing legislators’ pay, please read and engage with her writing here.