<p>When the newest Seattle City Councilmember, Alexis Mercedes Rinck, was on the campaign trail, the 29-year-old frequently stressed that she’s a renter and a transit rider, like many other young people but unlike most politicians. </p>
<p>Now she’s made history for being the first person in their 20s to sit on the Seattle City Council. </p>
<p>“I think I bring an important generational voice,” Rinck said on election night. “Our generation is really wondering ‘What does this city have in store for us? Is this a community where 20-somethings are able to make roots, be able to develop careers in, ultimately afford to buy a home in?’”</p>
<p>Rinck’s concerns echo others in a small group of Washington leaders in their 20s who are also grappling with questions about what their communities have in store for the next generation.</p>
<p>Cascade PBS and KNKX spoke to half a dozen councilmembers in Washington under 30 about their motivations and the challenges facing young people in local office. Almost all are renters, and many say housing affordability was a driving issue behind their decision to run. They also cite climate change, transit access and mental health as key issues facing their generation. They say their priorities and approach to politics often differ from those of older colleagues, and that young people’s voices continue to be underrepresented.</p>
<p>It’s no secret that political participation leans toward older people. The median age of U.S. senators is 65. A <a href=”https://genprogress.org/content/uploads/2018/09/27093134/A-Generation-Without-Representation-Report-2018.pdf”>2018 study</a> found that only 6% of state legislators are under 35, though people in that age group make up 34% of the U.S. electorate.</p>
<p>Data on the average age of municipal officeholders is hard to come by, but anecdotally, local governments are “very lonely spaces” for Gen Z, said Paul Charbonneau, 27, a city council member in Newcastle. </p>
<p>Charbonneau, a program manager at a youth mental health advocacy organization, decided to run for office in 2021 after looking at his city council demographics.</p>
<p>Newcastle City Councilmember Paul Charbonneau, 27, poses for a portrait at Lake Boren Park, one of his favorite spots in the city, and a place he frequented growing up, on Friday, December 6, 2024. Charbonneau was elected in 2021 at age 25. (Grant Hindsley for Cascade PBS)</p>
<p>“I looked at our average city council makeup, and I didn’t feel it was quite representative,” said Charbonneau, who was elected at age 25. “The average age of the seven council members was 68.” </p>
<p>The demographics of the council have since shifted a bit younger, but Charbonneau said he still feels like an outlier in local politics. </p>
<p>“It very much tends to lean older folks,” Charbonneau said. “But I think it makes it even more important for us to be there.” </p>
Housing struggles
<p>Many of the young politicians interviewed for this story said they’re the only people on their councils who don’t own property. Charbonneau said it “absolutely” informs how he approaches issues of housing affordability. </p>
<p>“Owning a home right now is harder for our generation,” Charbonneau said. “The purchasing power we have relative even to our parents’ generation is so much lower.” </p>
<p>About two-thirds of people under 35 — and 36% of all Americans — are renters. This is not reflected in governance. One study from the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimated that between 3% and 7% of elected office holders in the U.S. are renters. </p>
<p>Kenmore City Council member Nathan Loutsis, 22, is currently between rentals and living with his family.</p>
<p>“There’s a number of young folks around my age who are in very similar situations,” said Loutsis, who was elected last year at age 21. “Being able to relate with them and advocate for them in those sorts of situations, I think, is really powerful.” </p>
<p>Osman Salahuddin, 28, grew up in Redmond. He wants to stay there and put down roots, but worries about being priced out. It was a driving factor behind his decision to run for the Redmond City Council at age 26 in 2023. He’s currently renting. </p>
<p>“I’m very fortunate that I have a decent salary in my daytime job, but I’m still not able to catch up with the rents,” said Salahuddin, who also does communications and outreach work for King County Councilmember Sarah Perry. “I know firsthand I’m not able to buy a home here.” </p>
<p>Salahuddin said he’s especially focused on streamlining permitting and encouraging density. He believes housing is a human right, and said he wants to ensure everyone who wants to live in Redmond has the ability to do so. </p>
<p>“That really is a perspective a lot of younger folks are really resonating with,” Salahuddin said. “A lot of younger leaders have expressed that interest of just wanting their communities to be walkable, wanting their communities to be accessible and affordable for everyone.” </p>
<p>Shortly after taking office, Charbonneau tried introducing a sweeping package of tenant protections in Newcastle that included an increased notice period for rent increases and limits on rent hikes. It failed to pass, but Charbonneau said he hopes to bring it back soon. He thinks it will pass because of recent political changes on the Newcastle City Council. </p>
<p>Jace Cotton, 27, is the only renter on the Bellingham City Council. You don’t have to be a renter to care about tenants’ rights, he said, but it does help shape his perspective. </p>
<p>“I think I take that charge really seriously,” Cotton said. “To talk to renters and hear what their issues are and be creative and bullish and thoughtful about what policy solutions at the local level might look like.” </p>
<p>Before taking office in 2024, Cotton worked as campaign director for Community First Whatcom, which ran a successful Bellingham ballot initiative campaign that expanded tenant protections to require 120 days’ advance notice for rent increases and made tenants eligible for relocation assistance from their landlord if rents increase by more than 8% in a year. </p>
<p>“I really decided to run out of a sense of dissatisfaction on the pace of responsiveness to a lot of the issues I was hearing … particularly housing,” Cotton said. “Even when there’s consensus among decision makers about that definition of a problem, there just wasn’t that correlating urgency of action.” </p>
<p>Alexis Mercedes Rinck gives a speech after she is sworn in as Seattle City Councilmember for Position 8. (Caroline Walker Evans for Cascade PBS)</p>
<p>Housing affordability has continued to be a major focus for Cotton. He’s been pushing an ordinance that would prohibit landlords from charging tenants “junk fees.” It would cap rental application fees at $25, prohibit nonrefundable pet deposits and monthly pet fees, cap late fees at $10 a month and prevent move-in fees and security deposits from exceeding one month’s rent. </p>
<p>When Cotton’s junk-fees law came to a vote in October, other council members expressed interest, but opted to defer it, citing a need for more “community engagement” and legal analysis. The city’s deputy attorney told council members the proposal occupies an “emerging or cutting edge area of the law” and is “somewhat untested in the state of Washington.” </p>
<p>Cotton thinks the bill still has legs. It’s slated to come back to committee for discussion later this month. </p>
<p>“Council opted for more process around these drafts, which may very well be prudent,” Cotton said. “I think we’re going to get there.”</p>
The pace of change
<p>Government moves slowly. There are a lot of processes and bureaucratic hoops. The slowness is there for accountability, which is important, Charbonneau said. But as a young person wanting to make change quickly, it can also be frustrating.</p>
<p>“I think people our age are much more willing to question that than other folks, and also just bring a sense of urgency,” Charbonneau said. “We’re not afraid to ask, why are we doing something this way?” </p>
<p>As one example, Charbonneau recalls being frustrated by a “really onerous” calendaring and scheduling process that he said could add months of delay to legislation. After realizing there wasn’t anything in the rules saying things had to be done that way, Charbonneau said he found ways to speed things up by simply going to city staff directly and making motions to bring items to a vote immediately.</p>
<p>When young people enter politics, older folks sometimes have a posture of wanting to educate them in “reality and pragmatism,” Cotton said. The instinct can come from a good place — people new to politics need to learn about constraints and how to work within and overcome them, Cotton said. But at the same time, there’s sometimes a “dynamic of defensiveness about the status quo” that’s frustrating. </p>
<p>“I think young people bring a sort of generational optimism that government can work better for working people,” Cotton said. </p>
<p>Josh Binda, 25, a Lynnwood city councilmember, echoed those statements. </p>
<p>“I think the older generation is a lot more concerned with the systems of doing things a certain way, Robert’s Rules and all that,” Binda said. </p>
<p>Binda, who got involved in city politics as a racial justice activist during the 2020 George Floyd protests, decided to run for Lynnwood City Council after attending his first city council meeting. Binda said he saw a group of mostly “older, retired homeowners” who were advocating for preserving single family zoning and other policies he thought were out of touch with younger people’s priorities. </p>
<p>Lynnwood City Councilmember Josh Binda, 25, poses for a portrait outside Lynnwood City Hall, on Friday, December 6, 2024. Binda first ran for office, and was elected, when he was 21. (Grant Hindsley for Cascade PBS)</p>
<p>“I felt like there wasn’t a voice that was reflecting the needs of all our constituents,” Binda said. “Now that we’re growing and changing, I just think it needed a different voice.” </p>
<p>Binda ran a campaign focused on increasing affordable housing and diversity in the city. He won in 2021 at age 21 — the youngest Black person elected in state history, he said. </p>
<p>Binda thinks he brings a sense of urgency to elected office — a willingness to move quickly and question the way things have always been done. </p>
<p>“I’m up there as someone that’s just authentic, more real, more raw,” Binda said. </p>
<p>Binda acknowledges that his approach to politics has sometimes landed him in hot water. </p>
<p>During his first year in office, Binda faced an ethics complaint and failed recall attempt tied to using city property and an email address for personal business. The state’s public disclosure commission also fined him $1,000 for misusing campaign funds on personal expenses. He also got in trouble with the commission for missing the deadline to pay campaign filing fees. He said it was because, as a young person, he didn’t know how to write a check. </p>
<p>Colleagues criticized him for “poor decorum” and not following parliamentary procedure during meetings. The Daily Mail and New York Post wrote stories that attacked him for a shirtless photo of himself he posted on Instagram. </p>
<p>Binda apologized for the campaign finance violations and said he had made mistakes as a person new to politics who wasn’t familiar with the rules. He described other aspects of the controversy as being driven by a “good old boys’ club” of people who didn’t want to see a young person of color trying to make change. </p>
<p>“When you’re young and you make history and you go in there — the first person is always the one that’s going to get the blowback,” Binda said. </p>
<p>Community outreach also can look different for young city council members, many of whom use social media in a way that older city councilmembers haven’t. Sunnyside City Council member Keren Vazquez, 27, said Instagram reels and livestreams are a major part of how she tries to inform the community and connect with constituents — particularly younger ones. </p>
<p>“Whereas the older council members, they don’t use social media, they believe more in like, flyers,” said Vazquez, who was elected in 2023 at 26. “I’m always pushing ‘Let’s use QR codes’ or ‘Let’s post more stories.’”</p>
<p>Binda has about 43,000 followers on TikTok, and said the platform helps him make politics more accessible and relatable to younger folks and people who are tired of the “bureaucracy BS” of politics. He said his use of the platform has bothered some of his colleagues. </p>
<p>“I definitely face pushback from that because it’s not something they’re used to,” Binda said. “They didn’t have the platform to do it.”</p>
Barriers
<p>All the young officials interviewed said they faced skepticism for their age while running for office. </p>
<p>While doorbelling in Redmond, Salahuddin met people who told him he was “too young” to be running. Someone told Kenmore’s Loutsis that he hadn’t held down a job “long enough to know what the working world is like.” Others questioned him because he didn’t know what it was like to be a parent. Sunnyside’s Vazquez recalls one woman who said “Oh, honey, you’re going to get eaten alive.” In Newcastle, Charbonneau said he was criticized for “being a renter and not a homeowner.” </p>
<p>Binda said his opponent in Lynnwood told KING 5 that <a href=”https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/lynnwood-city-council-race-josh-binda-lisa-utter-washington/281-3f6d9223-ad87-4c3a-b4d5-86d142088842″>she was in office when Binda was born</a>. </p>
<p>“Going up to the doors as a 21-year-old and saying ‘Hey, I’m running to represent you and run your budgets and run the city’… I got a lot of people that laughed,” Binda said. </p>
<p>But the young electeds said they also met large numbers of people — and older politicians — who were supportive and glad to see someone in the next generation stepping up.</p>
<p>Skepticism isn’t the only barrier keeping young people out of elected office. Research from the <a href=”https://circle.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/2022-09/circle_running_for_office.pdf”>Center for Informa</a><a href=”https://circle.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/2022-09/circle_running_for_office.pdf”>tion & Civic Learning and Engagement</a> at Tufts University found that financial pressure, lack of support networks and feelings of not being qualified enough are all major barriers for young people — particularly young people of color.</p>
<p>There’s a feeling of “imposter syndrome” when you’re running a campaign against an older and more experienced opponent, Vazquez said. “You feel like, ‘Am I even capable?’” </p>
<p>Running for office is expensive and time-consuming. It’s especially tough for young folks who aren’t already financially secure, Charbonneau said.</p>
<p>Most city councils in Washington are technically part-time jobs with part-time pay, but the heavy workload often makes it feel like a full-time job. (Seattle, which <a href=”https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/HumanResources/Class%20Comp/SalarySchedule.pdf”>pays councilmembers</a> between $137,432 and $144,614 annually, is one major exception.) Many councils have meetings that conflict with the workday — another barrier for someone who needs to work full-time. The young politicians interviewed all described challenges balancing work — and in some cases school — with their political commitments. </p>
<p>“That’s why we see a lot of older individuals,” said Loutsis, who serves on the Kenmore City Council while also pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Washington and working part-time as a graduate staff assistant on campus. “They have that financial position, maybe more time in their schedules.” </p>
<p>For young people, committing to a term in office can also mean putting other career opportunities on hold. </p>
<p>“When I was campaigning, some of my friends would say, ‘What are you doing? You’re crazy,” Vazquez said. “‘If you win, you’re going to be stuck there for four years and you’re going to dedicate your youth until you’re 30.’” </p>
<p>Regardless of the challenges, all the young electeds said they’d encourage other young people who are interested to get involved. It’s important to have representation and a “diversity of voices” at the table when decisions are made, Charbonneau said. </p>
<p>“I think we care about issues that other folks might not care about,” Charbonneau said. </p>
<p>Many young city council members are working to increase youth participation in politics. Vazquez and Loutsis both said they’re in the process of creating youth councils where young people can have more direct input on policy decisions. </p>
<p>It’s important to have young people in elected office, Salahuddin said, because decisions about land use, climate change and transportation can have generational consequences. </p>
<p>“A lot of the decisions that we’re making as leaders wouldn’t be beneficial for the future of our city if we’re not actually incorporating the voices of those who it will actually impact,” Salahuddin said. “Young leaders absolutely need to be at the table.”</p>
<p><strong>Topics:</strong> <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/bellingham” hreflang=”en”>Bellingham</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/city-council” hreflang=”en”>city council</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/local-politics” hreflang=”en”>Local Politics</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/next-gen” hreflang=”en”>Next Gen</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/seattle-city-government” hreflang=”en”>Seattle City Government</a></p>
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