Gen Z politicians who want to make a change grapple with parties that aren’t always ready for them

Filed 1h ago · Via Stateline · The Buffoon Desk

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Decline

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Rijksmuseum · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Kansas state Rep. Angel Roeser, 25, voted against her own party's plan to change how state Supreme Court justices are selected, a proposal later rejected resoundingly by voters. Fellow Republicans responded by sharing an image labeling her and three others 'obstructionists,' and she says she struggled to get meetings with House leadership afterward.

Roeser, once branded a 'new face of Gen Z Republicans,' chose not to seek reelection. House Speaker Dan Hawkins denies any blacklist, saying he keeps an open-door policy regardless of voting record.

A CIRCLE survey of over 5,000 eligible Gen Z voters found 43% have no party affiliation and most believe the country is headed the wrong direction, with researchers framing youth political engagement as driven by frustration rather than faith in the system.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A party that calls a 25-year-old its rising star one year and papers the Capitol with her mug shot the next has a short memory and a shorter attention span. Young people keep getting told to show up and get involved, right up until they vote the way their actual constituents wanted instead of the way leadership wanted. Funny how 'representing the district' only counts as a virtue until it costs somebody a veto override.

Source: Read the original at Stateline → Scored: Decline · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0