Maxwell Frost | |
---|---|
Member of the U.S.HouseofRepresentatives from Florida's 10th district | |
Assumed office January 3, 2023 | |
Preceded by | Val Demings |
Personal details | |
Born | Maxwell Alejandro Frost January 17,1997 Orlando,Florida,U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Education | Valencia College |
Website | House website Campaign website |
Maxwell Alejandro Frost (born January 17,1997) [1] is an American politician and activist serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 10th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party,he was previously the national organizing director for March for Our Lives. Elected at age 25, [2] Frost is the first member of Generation Z to serve in the United States Congress.
Frost was born on January 17,1997,to a woman of Lebanese and Argentine descent and a Haitian father. [3] [4] His biological mother had several children. [5] He was adopted from birth;his adoptive mother is a special education teacher who migrated to the United States from Cuba in the Freedom Flights,and his adoptive father is a musician from Kansas. [6] He reconnected with his birth mother in June 2021. [6] [7] Frost attended Osceola County School for the Arts in Kissimmee,Florida. [8] In high school,he was part of the Technology Student Association. He attended Valencia College but dropped out before his senior year. [6] [9]
Frost has been organizing since around 2012,when he was active with Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign. [10] [8] He also volunteered with the Newtown Action Alliance,an organization created in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. [6] He has identified Occupy Wall Street,the Columbine High School massacre,the killing of Trayvon Martin,and the Orlando nightclub shooting as events that affected his thinking. [11] He later volunteered for Bernie Sanders,Hillary Clinton,and Margaret Good. [7]
Frost survived an incident of gun violence at a Halloween event in Downtown Orlando in 2016. [6] [12]
Frost was an organizer with the American Civil Liberties Union and worked to support Florida's 2018 Amendment 4 and to pressure Joe Biden to stop supporting the Hyde Amendment in 2019. [6] He was the national organizing director for March for Our Lives. [6] [13] In November 2021,Frost was arrested at a voting rights rally in Lafayette Square led by William Barber II and Ben Jealous. [14]
In August 2021,Frost announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Florida's 10th congressional district. [15] During the primary campaign,he released a television ad in Spanglish,telling The Hill ,"Latinos are in a place where their first language is Spanish but they speak English as well,and quite frankly that's me ... We speak Spanglish in the house,and I know that's the same for a lot of Latino families in the district." [16]
Frost beat state senator Randolph Bracy and former U.S. representatives Alan Grayson and Corrine Brown,among others,in the August 23,2022,primary. [17] Due to the district's Democratic tilt,Frost was expected to win the general election in November 2022, [18] which he did,defeating Republican Calvin Wimbish by a 19% margin,which was smaller than the 32% margin by which Biden won the district in 2020. [19] Frost is the youngest member of Congress and the first member of Generation Z elected to Congress. [13] [6] [20] [21] [22] He was endorsed by numerous national and local political figures,including Jesse Jackson,former NAACP president Ben Jealous,civil-rights activist Dolores Huerta,and U.S. senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. [23]
For the 118th Congress: [24]
Frost supports a Green New Deal. [6] He has identified environmental justice as a priority of his campaign. [4] [7]
Frost is a strong advocate for gun control. [4] [7]
In January 2023,Frost and Representative Jared Moskowitz sent House speaker Kevin McCarthy a letter asking him to convene a classified meeting to address mass shootings. The letter called for the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to conduct the meeting. [28]
Frost supports single-payer healthcare and investing in pandemic prevention. [4] [6] [7]
Frost wants to "build toward a future without prison". [6] He supports the decriminalization of sex work and the decriminalization of cannabis use. [7] [29]
Frost is a supporter of Kamala Harris's plan to build 3 million new housing units in her first term and believes that increasing housing affordability and accessibility should be a policy priority in a Harris administration. [30] [ needs update ] He was endorsed by the Florida chapter of YIMBY Action, [31] a YIMBY group.
Frost believes that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) "certainly fell short in ways,but it blocked Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon,which was an important success". [32] In 2022,he supported restoration of the JCPOA but stressed "we must make it longer,stronger,and broader to cover not just the issue of nuclear weapons,but also the full range of destabilizing and threatening actions Iran engages in,like Iran's ballistic missile program and the country's support for terrorist proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas." [32]
Frost supports a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and has indicated his intent to travel to Israel to promote "US leadership in bringing peace to a region that so desperately needs and deserves it". [33] [34] He has called himself pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian. [33] [34] [35] In 2022,he supported unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel. [33] [34] [36] He has criticized the Palestinian Authority's martyr's fund that compensates the families of dead and wounded militants,likening it to a recruitment tactic of Hamas for the purpose of committing politically motivated violence against Israel. [33] [36] Frost opposes the Boycott,Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and accuses it of harboring leadership from terrorist organizations. [33] [34] [36]
Frost had formerly participated in pro-Palestine activism,signing pledges with the Florida Palestine Network (FPN) and the Palestinian Feminist Pledge,calling for support of the Boycott,Divestment,and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel,ending military aid to Israel,and rejecting the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism. [37] In early August 2022,the Jewish news website Jewish Insider published a candidate questionnaire from Frost's congressional campaign that showed a shift in Frost's foreign policy positions on Israel and Palestine. [36] Jewish Insider characterized his responses as a reversal that distanced himself from his past while declaring an aggressive stance against the BDS movement,calling for unconditional military aid to Israel,and stating his opposition to anti-Zionism. [34] His campaign later released a position paper that formalized these positions. [33] [36]
Following the war in Gaza,Frost has shown a shift in his views on Israel-Palestine. While Frost voted to provide Israel with initial support following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, [38] [39] as of April 2024 he has voted against providing Israel with further aid,has accused Israel of violating international law during the war,and has stated that "the bombing campaign in Gaza must stop". [40] [41]
During his campaign,Frost announced a "crypto-advisory council" that would advise him during his campaign. [42] He received $8,700 in contributions from Sam Bankman-Fried and his brother and nearly $1 million in help from the Super-PAC Protect Our Future,almost all of it after announcing the council. [43]
Frost is against building a southern border wall. [44] During a January 2024 House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on immigration Frost proposed removing the Statue of Liberty in response to Republican bill H.R. 2 Secure the Border Act. [45] [46]
Frost can speak both English and Spanish. [16] He is a jazz drummer and plays the timbales. [8] [13] His nine-member high school band Seguro Que Sí(from Spanish 'of course') performed in the parade during Obama's second inauguration in 2013. [8] [47]
In December 2022,Frost said he was denied a rental apartment in Washington,D.C.,due to a "really bad" credit history. He said his credit rating was bad because he "ran up a lot of debt running for Congress for a year and a half". [49]
Frost was among a handful of Democrats who received about $1 million in support from former billionaire and felon Sam Bankman-Fried's Protect Our Future PAC,as well as the maximum individual donation of $2,900. [50] In December 2022,the U.S. government indicted Bankman-Fried after alleging that he gave investor money to progressive political candidates,among other fraudulent crimes. [51] After the announcement of charges against Bankman-Fried,Frost donated the individual donation to the Zebra Coalition,an LGBTQ charity. [52]
Year | Office | Party | Primary | General | Result | Swing | Ref. | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | % | P. | Total | % | P. | ||||||||
2022 | U.S. House | Democratic | 19,288 | 34.77% | 1st | 117,955 | 59.00% | 1st | Won | Hold | [53] | ||
Source: Secretary of State of Florida | Election Results |
Peter Anthony DeFazio is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Oregon's 4th congressional district from 1987 to 2023. He is a member of the Democratic Party and is a founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. A native of Massachusetts and a veteran of the United States Air Force Reserve, he previously served as a county commissioner in Lane County, Oregon. On December 1, 2021, DeFazio announced he would not seek reelection in 2022.
Steven Jay Israel is an American political commentator, lobbyist, author, bookseller, and former politician. He served as a U.S. representative from New York from 2001 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected in New York's 2nd congressional district until 2013 and New York's 3rd congressional district until his retirement. At the time of his departure from Congress, his district included portions of northern Nassau County and Suffolk County on Long Island, as well as a small portion of Queens in New York City.
Thomas Richard Suozzi is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 3rd congressional district since 2024 and previously from 2017 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the county executive of Nassau County on Long Island from 2002 to 2009, when he was unseated by Republican Ed Mangano. Before that, Suozzi served eight years as the mayor of Glen Cove in Nassau County.
Henry Calvin Johnson Jr. is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Georgia's 4th congressional district since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is anchored in Atlanta's inner eastern suburbs, including Decatur, all of Rockdale County, Lithonia, Stone Mountain, Covington and a sliver of Atlanta itself. Johnson is one of only three Buddhists to have served in the United States Congress. The others are Senator Mazie Hirono and former Representative Colleen Hanabusa, both of Hawaii.
Mark William Pocan is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. representative from Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district since 2013. The district is based in the state capital, Madison. A member of the Democratic Party, Pocan is co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus and chair emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. From 1999 to 2013 he served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing the 78th district, succeeding Tammy Baldwin there, whom he also replaced in the House when Baldwin was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Theodore Eliot Deutch is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative from Florida's 22nd congressional district from 2010 to 2022. His district, numbered as the 19th district from 2010 to 2013 and as the 21st from 2013 to 2017, included much of northern Broward County and southern Palm Beach County in South Florida. A member of the Democratic Party, he first entered Congress in 2010 after a special election following the resignation of Robert Wexler.
Shri Thanedar is an Indian-born American businessman, author, and politician serving as the U.S. representative from Michigan's 13th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Thanedar served as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 2021 to 2023. He was also a candidate in the Democratic primary for governor of Michigan in the 2018 election.
Charles Joseph Fleischmann is an American attorney and politician who has been the U.S. representative for Tennessee's 3rd congressional district since 2011. The district is based in Chattanooga and includes a large part of East Tennessee, including Oak Ridge. He is a member of the Republican Party.
André D. Carson is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Indiana's 7th congressional district since 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, his district includes the northern four-fifths of Indianapolis, including Downtown Indianapolis. He became the dean of Indiana's congressional delegation after Representative Pete Visclosky retired in 2021.
Mark Allan Takano is an American politician and academic who has served in the United States House of Representatives since 2013, representing California's 41st congressional district from 2013 to 2023 and the 39th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Takano became the first gay person of Asian descent in Congress upon taking office.
Jimmy Gomez is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 34th congressional district since 2017. His district includes the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Eagle Rock, Boyle Heights, Downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, and other communities. A member of the Democratic Party, Gomez served in the California State Assembly from 2012 to 2017.
Neal Patrick Dunn is an American surgeon and Republican Party politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 2nd congressional district since 2017.
Brian Jeffrey Mast is an American politician and U.S. military veteran who has served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 21st congressional district since 2017. The district, numbered as the 18th district before the 2020 redistricting cycle, includes portions of the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast. Mast is a member of the Republican Party.
Rebecca A. Balint is an American politician who is a member of the United States House of Representatives from Vermont's at-large congressional district as a member of the Democratic Party. She served as a member of the Vermont Senate from Windham County from 2015 to 2023, as majority leader from 2017 to 2021, and as president pro tempore from 2021 to 2023.
Daniel Sachs Goldman is an American attorney, politician, and heir; he is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 10th congressional district. A politically progressive member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the lead majority counsel in the first impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump and lead counsel to House Managers in Trump's impeachment trial which was also in 2019. Goldman is among the wealthiest members of Congress, with an estimated personal net worth of up to $253 million according to financial disclosure forms.
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is an American businesswoman and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 20th congressional district. Her district covers most of the Black-majority areas in and around Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. A member of the Democratic Party, she won a special election in 2022 to fill the seat left vacant after the death of Alcee Hastings.
Christopher Raphael Deluzio is an American attorney, politician and former U.S. Navy officer serving as the U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 17th congressional district since 2023. The district includes most of the northwestern suburbs of Pittsburgh. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
The 2023 Virginia's 4th congressional district special election was a special election to the U.S. House of Representatives that was held to fill Virginia's 4th congressional district for the remainder of the 118th United States Congress. The seat became vacant after incumbent Democrat Donald McEachin died on November 28, 2022, of colorectal cancer. State Senator Jennifer McClellan was declared the victor shortly after the polls closed, winning in a landslide against her Republican opponent.
Joseph Vogel is an Uruguay-born American politician who has served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from District 17 since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, his district includes the Montgomery County cities of Gaithersburg and Rockville; he represents the district alongside fellow Democratic delegates Julie Palakovich Carr and Ryan Spiegel.
43. Diamant, Jeff (January 3, 2023) “Faith on The Hill” Pew Research Center. Retrieved September 7, 2023.