‘We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future,’ he said.
(Picture: AP)Maxwell Frost has become the Representative-elect for Florida’s 10th congressional district. Frost is 25 years old, which also makes him the US Congress’ first representative of Generation Z.
On the news, Frost tweeted: “WE WON!!!! History was made tonight. We made history for Floridians, for Gen Z, and for everyone who believes we deserve a better future.
“I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to represent my home in the United States Congress.”
Who is Maxwell Frost?
Frost’s mum is Puerto Rican of Lebanese descent and his father is Haitian. After his biological mum was a victim of violence, Frost was adopted as a young child by a special education teacher who migrated to the United States from Cuba on the Freedom Flights. She was a musician. He later reconnected with his birth mother in June 2021.
Frost attended Osceola County School for the Arts in Orlando, and has been a student at Valencia College since June 2022.
He volunteered with the Newtown Action Alliance, an organisation created in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Frost has previously said that Occupy Wall Street, the Columbine High School massacre, the killing of Trayvon Martin, and the Orlando nightclub shooting are all events that pushed him to pursue a career in politics and activism. He survived a gun violence incident at a Halloween event in Downtown Orlando in 2016.
He started his activism in 2012 and was active in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. He was then director for March for Our Lives in 2018 and worked for Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Margaret Good, a former Member of the Florida House of Representatives.
Frost was formerly a pro-Palestine activist and held pro-Palestinian beliefs before reversing his foreign policy position in 2022.
In November 2021, he was arrested at a voting rights rally in Lafayette Square led by William Barber II and Ben Jealous.
Frost speaks two languages: Spanish and English. In his spare time, he is a jazz drummer and plays the timbales.
His nine-member high school band Seguro Que Sí (Spanish for “Surely yes”) performed in the parade during Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.
What are Maxwell Frost’s political beliefs?
Frost’s website reads: “My work has never been about me – it’s been about us.” He refers to himself as a a survivor, leader and advocate.
His political positions on various issues are:
- He supports a Green New Deal and has identified environmental justice as a priority of his campaign
- He advocates for gun violence prevention
- He supports single-payer healthcare and investing in pandemic prevention
- He wants to “build toward a future without prison” and supports decriminalising sex work and marijuana use
- He has called himself both “pro-Israel and pro-Palestine”. Frost has criticised the Palestinian Authority's martyr fund that compensates the families of dead and wounded militants. And he opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, accuses it of harboring leadership from terrorist organisations, and suggests that businesses that participate in BDS should in turn be divested
- In early August 2022, his congressional campaign seemed to reverse his foreign policy positions on Israel and Palestine. He was previously vocal about his pro-Palestine activism, but in the questionnaire he distanced himself from his past while declaring an aggressive stance against the BDS movement. He called for unconditional military aid to Israel, and stating his opposition to anti-Zionism
- Frost has been criticised for this and his colleagues have accused him of using pro-Palestine “organising success as a stepping stool to become anti-Palestinian”
