“When I knock on doors, I talk to voters through this lens of, like, ‘Hey, I get what you’re going through. I also struggle with rent. I also think groceries are too damn high,’” said Bryce Berry, 23, who is running in Georgia House District 56 in west Atlanta. “They want somebody that can speak to their issues.”

In this election, all of these candidates are running as Democrats. One Republican Gen Z influencer had competed for an open Georgia House seat this spring, but lost his runoff in a special election to temporarily fill a vacant seat in House District 125 and declined to run again in the May primary.

(There are several millennial Republican lawmakers currently serving in the Statehouse who just missed the Gen Z cutoff: State Rep. Houston Gaines is 29, and state Reps. Mitchell Horner and Steven Sainz are 30, as is state Sen. Colton Moore.)

Because they presumably have more years ahead of them than behind, the message brought by these Gen Z candidates is forward-looking.

“My community needs long-term thinking for the future, whether that’s addressing the climate change crisis, protecting our democracy or making sure we govern technology in the right way,” Ramaswami said. “These are all areas that I believe Gen Z is especially uniquely suited to lead on.”

He is running against state Sen. Shawn Still, a Republican, in the 48th District, which covers parts of Johns Creek, Sugar Hill and south Forsyth County.

Still easily carried the district in his first run for office in 2022, but he was among 18 people indicted in 2023 alongside former President Donald Trump in an alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential vote in the state. Still has pleaded not guilty to the charges, but Ramaswami has seized upon the indictment as one reason why voters should not reelect him.

Credit: Courtesy photo

Credit: Courtesy photo

Talkin’ ‘bout this generation

These candidates were in high school when Trump first ran for president. They were just entering the workforce when Joe Biden won the nation’s highest office. And their childhood and young adulthood have been shaped by a pandemic and political movements, such as the racial unrest of 2020.

Both Sanchez and Berry have been personally touched by racial injustice.

Sanchez was classmates in Miami with Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Black youth who was fatally shot on his walk back from a convenience store in Sanford, Florida, in 2012. He is running in the Georgia House’s 42nd District in Smyrna, a heavily Democratic-leaning area that voted for Biden by 70% in 2020.

Sanchez defeated incumbent state Rep. Terry Anulewicz in the Democratic primary in May and will face Republican nominee Diane Jackson in November.

Berry grew up in St. Louis when Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by a police officer in the suburb of Ferguson.

“That moment in time, the effect it had on me as a 13-year-old kid, the effect it had on me as a young Black man, growing up and seeing a community that was not being invested in,” Berry said, “was the whole impetus of why I got into political spaces.”

Berry is running in a district that voted for Biden by 91% against state Rep. Mesha Mainor, who switched parties last year and is running for reelection as a Republican.

These candidates aren’t just young. They are also a diverse group.

Ramaswami, if elected, would be the only Indian American in the Legislature. Smith, who is running against Republican House Rules Chairman Butch Parrish, would be the only blind lawmaker serving under the Gold Dome. Hamza Nazir, 25, who is running in Forsyth County against Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal, would be one of the only Muslim legislators.

Sanchez, who is Latino, said his background is partially what inspired his candidacy.

“We have very little Latino representation in Georgia, and so I felt like it was time for me to step up,” he said.

Compared with their Democratic peers in the General Assembly, these young candidates tack further left, especially Sanchez, who has the backing of the Atlanta chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. While their chances of victory vary by district and situation, their more liberal approach may play with Georgia’s young voters.

In 2020, 58% of voters 18-29 in Georgia selected Biden, compared with 39% for Trump. Two years later, that same age group voted 59% for Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock over GOP challenger Herschel Walker, who got just 38% of the vote.

They’re also part of a wave of young people across the nation interested in seeking public office. In 2010, fewer than 2% of people ages 18-25 ran for an elected position. By 2020, that rate had increased to nearly 4%, according to a Tufts University study.

House of the rising young

One of the top issues these candidates said they discuss with voters is access to affordable housing. That includes both the ability to buy a home in their community as well as protecting renters.

“Homeownership is good, and it’s a goal,” Berry said. “But when you look at communities like mine, especially younger people in the state, the majority of people rent and so we need policies that look at renters as well.”

It’s an issue he feels every month.

“There’s a check that I have that I use for rent, and there’s a check that I use for other bills,” Berry said. “It shouldn’t be that way.”

More than one-quarter of those surveyed this month in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll, about 27%, said inflation and the cost of living will have the biggest influence on their vote for president. Among voters 18-29, 38% said it’s their top priority.

“We need to realize that people are struggling and can barely afford to live right now,” Sanchez said.

Part of the answer, he said, is focusing on improving conditions for workers to give them more money to buy homes.

“Georgia is the No. 1 state to do business. I think we need to make it the No. 1 state for people who work here,” he said.

Smith, Berry and Sanchez all said it’s hard for them to imagine becoming a homeowner.

“I went to school. I have a graduate degree. I own my own business, but I rent a duplex in Statesboro, Georgia, at 27 years old,” Smith said. “So that tells me that there’s something in that equation that’s not adding up.”

What’s age got to do with it?

The candidates said they understand the challenges of living on a limited income and making their dollar stretch as far as possible, something that helps them relate to voters.

And on the campaign trail, their age has not come up as much as expected.

“Folks don’t care about how old you are when they don’t have food on the table, when they don’t have health care or when their child’s public school is in the bottom 25%,” Berry said. “They just want someone who’s going to fight for them.”

Ramaswami said voters have been “happy when they see someone from my generation stepping up.”

“We’re tired of the old traditions of these political systems that aren’t working for us,” Sanchez said. “We need something different. We need change.”