ORLANDO, Fla. – Maxwell Frost on Tuesday won the crowded field in the race for U.S. Rep. Val Demings’ seat.
Frost, 25, is a national organizing director for March For Our Lives and also has worked with the ACLU. If elected, he would be among the first Gen Z lawmakers in Congress.
“Don’t count us out because of our youth,” Frost said. “We need a government that looks like the entire country. That means race, age. That means experience.”
He advocates for progressive issues, including Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, tightening gun laws, increasing funding for biomedical research, legalizing recreational marijuana, abolishing the death penalty, and instituting national protections for tenants and curbing real estate speculation to deal with housing affordability.
“At the end of the day this is about the fight for everything and everyone,” Frost said. “I intend to work tooth and nail to make sure we keep our majority in Congress, so we can deliver for people, poor and in the working class families, and we don’t forget our state and local races.”
Demings won the nomination for U.S. Senate and will take on Marco Rubio in November.
On the other side of the aisle, Calvin Wimbish won the Republican nomination for the house seat.
Frost will face Wimbish and a no-party affiliate candidate, Jason Holic, in November.
U.S. Rep. Val Demings is leaving her congressional district to run for U.S. Senate. That means U.S. House District 10 is an open seat this year.
The district originally encompassed much of western Orange County, but it was redrawn by the Florida Legislature this year. The district now stretches through the center of the county, from the Pine Hills area across downtown and Winter Park to Bithlo.
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Ten Democrats are vying to take over the district from Demings in the Aug. 23 primary.
They are Jack Achenbach, Jeffrey Boone, Randolph Bracy, Corrine Brown, Maxwell Frost, Terence Gray, Alan Grayson, Natalie Jackson, Khalid Muneer and Teresa Tachon.
Because Florida is a closed-primary state, only Democrats can vote in this election. Learn more about what that means for the rest of the election on Aug. 23 HERE.
The winner of this election will face the Republican nominee, as well as a no-party affiliate candidate, Jason Holic.
Here are the Democratic candidates for U.S. House District 10.
Votes
%
Jack Achenbach(D)
Jeffrey Boone(D)
Randolph Bracy(D)
Corrine Brown(D)
Maxwell Alejandro Frost(D)
Terence R. Gray(D)
Alan Grayson(D)
Natalie Jackson(D)
Khalid Muneer(D)
Teresa Tachon(D)
(0 / 218)
Jack Achenbach
Jack Achenbach is a registered dietician living in Orange County. Achenbach says he’s fed up with people getting into office for all the wrong reasons and ignoring those they represent.
Achenbach wants to push for a minimum interest rate for savings accounts, cracking down on bank fees, constitutional amendments on marriage equality and reproductive health care, legalizing and regulating recreational drugs, investing in alternative energy, expanding gun laws, improving access to mental health, reforming student loan interest, and other issues.
Jeffrey Boone
Jeffrey Boone works in finance and lives in Orlando. He wants to focus on increasing employment opportunities in distressed communities, in urban and rural areas, expanding funding for affordable housing, increasing education funding, and improving police and community relations.
Randolph Bracy
Randolph Bracy is a Florida senator from Orlando whose family founded New Covenant Baptist Church.
In Bracy’s time in the Florida House and Senate, he championed several pieces of legislation, including one that prohibits the arrests of most children younger than 7, and one to strengthen security in apartment complexes, both of which were signed into law. He also championed police reform bills, gun control bills, and increasing unemployment compensation.
Bracy says if elected, his focus in Congress will be on transportation, jobs, the environment and fixing health care.
Corrine Brown
Corrine Brown is a former U.S. congresswoman representing Jacksonville and Orlando. She was first elected to office in 1992 and served until 2017. She was sentenced to prison for fraud, but her conviction was later overturned on appeal.
In Congress, she specialized in veterans’ issues and transportation. Brown says she wants to continue in those areas but now also wants to add criminal justice and prison reform.
She also sees the country as going backward on voting rights and women’s rights and wants to turn that around. She also supports banning assault weapons and protecting LGBTQ rights.
Maxwell Frost
Maxwell Frost is a national organizing director for March For Our Lives and also has worked with the ACLU.
Frost advocates for progressive issues, including Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, tightening gun laws, increasing funding for biomedical research, legalizing recreational marijuana, abolishing the death penalty, and instituting national protections for tenants and curbing real estate speculation to deal with housing affordability.
If elected, he would be one of the first Generation Z lawmakers in Congress at 25 years old.
Terence Gray
Terence Gray is senior pastor at St. Mark AME Church in Orlando. He has shown support for LGBTQ rights, women’s reproductive rights, fighting gun violence and voting rights reform.
Alan Grayson
Alan Grayson is an attorney and former U.S. congressman for the Orlando area. He served in the U.S. House between 2009 and 2017. Grayson describes himself as a “proven progressive champion” with dozens of pieces of legislation under his belt on issues ranging from auditing the Federal Reserve to to increasing funding for prostate cancer.
Grayson is running on a progressive platform, which includes codifying reproductive rights, strengthening gun laws, Medicare for All, changing taxes to tax the wealthy and corporations more, paid family leave, a $15 federal minimum wage and fighting climate change.
Natalie Jackson
Natalie Jackson is a civil rights attorney from Sanford. She came to prominence when she partnered with attorney Ben Crump on the Trayvon Martin case in 2012. She’s worked on several national and local civil rights cases, including the Breonna Taylor case. She is also a U.S. Navy veteran serving on the USS Roosevelt and at the Pentagon.
Civil rights will be one of the issues Jackson focuses on if elected to Congress. She also wants to expand Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, expand union rights, codify reproductive rights, supports a carbon tax to fight climate change, wants to extend tax benefits for homeowners and permanently funding the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
Khalid Muneer
Khalid Muneer is a Pakistani immigrant who has built a real estate firm covering several Central Florida counties. He lives in Orlando and is active in the Asian American community
Muneer is focusing his campaign on ending human trafficking, reducing gun violence, protecting the environment and tackling inflation. He also wants to focus on providing better constituent services to the area.
Teresa Tachon
Teresa Tachon is a college math teacher at Valencia College and at Boone High School in Orlando.
Education is Tachon’s biggest focus in running for Congress, but she also supports universal health care, increasing funding for the disabled community, increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, improving infrastructure, and on LGBTQ rights. She also wants to invest more in research and development and in technology job training, and in upgrading systems against cyberattacks.
Votes
%
Jack Achenbach(D)
Jeffrey Boone(D)
Randolph Bracy(D)
Corrine Brown(D)
Maxwell Alejandro Frost(D)
Terence R. Gray(D)
Alan Grayson(D)
Natalie Jackson(D)
Khalid Muneer(D)
Teresa Tachon(D)
(0 / 218)