How Gen Z is whipping the winds of change through Congress

In a year when the two major parties have renominated the oldest presidential candidates in history and long-time members of Congress are seeking reelection, it is hard to imagine that change is coming. Today’s Congress, for example, is one of the oldest in history, with an average age of 58. 

But Congress is not immutable to transformation where change can sometimes happen slowly, and at other times with a jolt.  

In 1946, the veterans of World War II, including former Navy men John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, sought seats in Congress and entered the Capitol a year later. Grizzled by combat, they rejected the pre-war isolationism and became advocates of a strong national defense and U.S. involvement in international affairs.  

After Watergate, a different group entered Congress determined to upset old norms — especially the venerable seniority system where they ousted three incumbent conservative southern Democrats from their chairmanships. 

Pennsylvania Rep. Bob Edgar (D), an ordained Protestant minister, embodied the spirit of these so-called “Watergate Babies” whose religious moralism and reform-minded ethos they applied to their calls for transparency. California Democrat Rep. George Miller, part of the “Class of ’74,” recalls: “We came here to take the Bastille. We destroyed the institution by turning the lights on.”  

Following the contentious Clarence Thomas hearings that were torn asunder by scandalous accusations of sexual abuse, 1992 became the “Year of the Woman.” A record number of women were elected to Congress, including Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.). 

Eventually, the ranks of women in the legislature grew to today’s 126 in the House and 25 in the Senate. Over time, these congressional veterans accumulated power, as exemplified when Murray became the first female Senate President Pro Tempore in 2023 with the title “Madame President.” 

In 1994, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) led a different revolution whose loyalists were signatories to the “Contract with America” that promised votes to limit the terms of members of Congress, give the president a line-item veto authority, enact tough-on-crime laws and institute work requirements for welfare recipients. 

Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.) was one of the Gingrich revolutionaries and became emblematic of their ethos. Seeing themselves as citizen politicians who preferred to sleep in their offices and reject the social life in Washington, D.C., Gingrich Republicans became the precursors of the Tea Party, similarly bent on waging ideological warfare against their veteran Democratic counterparts. 

Today, new winds of change are blowing as Zoomers, those born in 1997 or later, enter the polling booths. In 2024, 41 million Zoomers will be eligible to vote. 

Growing up in an era marked by gun violence and school lockdowns, Zoomers learned to hide in classroom closets. For many, the government has failed them. Whether it be mitigating gun violence, climate change, the isolationism imposed by the COVID pandemic or easing the burden imposed by exorbitant student loans, Zoomers are fed up. Today, 58 percent believe that “we won’t be able to solve the country’s problems until the older generation no longer holds power.” 

Nowhere is the distinction between the Old Guard and Zoomers more evident than in the upcoming Democratic primary in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District. 

April McClain Delaney — the wife of former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) — is facing off against Maryland State Delegate Joe Vogel. Delaney has the endorsement of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (R-Calif.) and is marketing herself as a “commonsense,” establishment-oriented candidate who can find “common ground” with Republicans. 

In an interview with me, Vogel criticized Delaney’s approach, describing her as “caught up in the insider machine for a very long time.”

Vogel, who I voted for, is the quintessential Zoomer. Born in Uruguay in 1997, his parents and grandparents fled the South American military dictatorship for work in the United States. Like his fellow Zoomers who are highly educated with 1 in 5 identifying as LGBTQ, Vogel earned a Master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School and is gay. Having only served one term in the Maryland legislature as that body’s first Zoomer, Vogel refused to wait his turn and in 2023 declared his congressional candidacy.  

Motivated by a sense of urgency that defines his generation, Vogel explained to me that he is running for office because he’s “fed up with the gun violence epidemic” afflicting his generation, “terrified of what the climate crisis holds for our future,” and believes “threats to our democracy” must be immediately addressed and doesn’t feel Delaney shares “that sense of urgency” 

Conservative pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson observes that the Zoomers’ preoccupation with gun violence, climate change and economic inequality has resulted in a transformation away from seeking compromise and toward “disrupt[ing] the institutions and systems that are allowing the other side to prevail.” 

Vogel embodies Anderson’s analysis, telling me that, if elected, he’s “not going to Congress with the initial desire to compromise,” adding, “The willingness to compromise is what got us here.” Instead, he promises to fight for the PRO Act, which protects the rights of labor unions to organize, and the Equality Act, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. He also vows to promote a ban on assault weapons and protect abortion rights. 

While it is too early to predict the outcome, this race is worth watching. Vogel is gaining support from members of Congress, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and January 6 House committee veteran Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). Win or lose, Vogel represents a generational change that will eventually upend our politics.  

Whether that happens in 2024 is unclear. But what is clear is that the winds of change are blowing, and Congress will eventually feel its effects. Better batten down the hatches. 

John Kenneth White is a professor emeritus of Politics at The Catholic University of America. His latest book is: “Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism.” He can be reached at johnkennethwhite.com.