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Rep. Dan Crenshaw criticized some of the GOP candidates tapped to run for office in 2022.
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“We chose two 25-year-olds to be our nominees. That’s crazy,” Crenshaw told Politico.
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GOP voters nominated Karoline Leavitt, 25, and Bo Hines, 27, in two key House districts. Both lost.
During the 2022 midterm elections, Gen Z and younger Millennial voters were eager to flex their political muscles, overwhelmingly pushing for issues such as college affordability, reproductive rights and climate issues.
Several young Americans even decided to run for federal office, including Democratic Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25-year-old Floridian who last month became the first Gen Z member elected to Congress.
However, in a recent interview with Politico, Texas GOP Representative Dan Crenshaw said his party made a mistake in nominating younger candidates in two of the country’s most competitive House districts.
“We lost races that we should have won easily. We chose two 25-year-olds to be our nominees. That’s crazy,” the 38-year-old congressman told the publication of two young Republicans who won primaries to run as their party to serve. nominees.
He added: “I’m sure they’re nice people, but they’ve got two years of work experience at most. So in a general election people say, ‘No, we’re not choosing that.'”
In New Hampshire’s 1st congressional district, Democratic Representative Chris Pappas defeated 25-year-old former Trump White House assistant press secretary Karoline Leavitt 54%-46%.
And in North Carolina’s 13th congressional district, Senator Wiley Nickel defeated 27-year-old Republican Bo Hines by four points (52%-48%).
While Crenshaw pointed to the age of the candidates when he noted some of the party’s losses in a year when they had expected more robust congressional wins, there is no clear evidence that the Leavitt or Hines were defeated in their respective contests because of their youthfulness.
With Congress populated largely by legislators in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, and with leaders like President Joe Biden and outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California in their 80s, there is a pent-up desire on the part of many young Americans to take their seats in table in public policy making – but they are often discouraged by a lack of funding or support from political parties.
This year, Insider explored the phenomenon of an American gerontocracy in its “Red, White, and Gray” series, which featured an article about young candidates who wanted to run for office but encountered institutional barriers during their respective campaigns.
Republicans were able to flip the House this year, but their slim majority only raises the stakes for the 2024 presidential election — when Gen Z voters will continue to become a more influential part of the electorate.
Read the original article on Business Insider
