When 20-year-old Ephren Taylor III is knocking on doors in Wyandotte County neighborhoods for his Kansas Senate campaign, he often hears a version of the phrase: “We need new blood.”
His opponent in the August 6 Democratic primary, Senator David HaleyHe has represented northern and eastern Wyandotte County in the Legislature since 1995, nearly 10 years before Taylor was born.
Taylor is just one of several Gen Z candidates – born between 1997 and 2012 – vying for a seat in a parliament largely dominated by older elected officials. On the other side of Wyandotte County, the race to represent Senate District 6 includes 19-year-old Republican Tabitha Burt.
“We’re not in the Legislature,” Taylor said. “And people in the Legislature are not talking about the issues that young people care about and a big part of the reason is that there just aren’t young people in office.”
Kansas is one of 14 states that allow candidates to run for positions in both chambers at age 18 years. Despite this, the average age of a Kansas lawmaker is 63, and the median age is just over 59, according to the Star’s analysis of legislators’ birthdays published in Hawver Capitol Report.
Only one Gen Z lawmaker, 27-year-old Rep. Avery Anderson, is currently in office. The Newton Republican ran at age 23 and is now the youngest chairman of the Legislature, in charge of running the House transportation committee.
While many Americans feel disillusioned with the state of the presidential election, Gen Z candidates and political organizers from both parties in Kansas are looking to have more influence at the state level. The Star spoke to 15 of them, including younger lawmakers already in office.
They said younger representatives are uniquely positioned to push for policies that reflect Kansas’ current economic, technological and environmental realities. And that the election of younger representation is crucial to retaining young people in the state and avoiding the expected shortage of workers in the coming years.
“We are facing the same problems year after year in our state and in this country, but we are using the same ideas to try to defeat these problems instead of coming up with new ideas and perspectives,” the congressman said. Nick Hoheisel, a millennial Republican from Wichita and co-chair of the bipartisan party Kansas Future Caucus which recruits millennial and Gen Z legislators.
Next month, candidates as young as 19 will appear on the Kansas primary ballot. For many of the younger generation, this will be the first time they have been able to run for public office.
‘We didn’t like what we saw’
Taylor has become more engaged in politics out of frustration with the current polarized landscape.
“Many of us started getting politically involved around 2016 when (Donald) Trump became president,” he said. “We don’t like what we saw from that election and that presidency.”
He decided to run when he saw his veteran opponent – who is one of the oldest members of the Legislature and began his career as a Republican – vote in favor of the failed flat tax and “publicly identify as a fiscal conservative.”
Taylor said it was disappointing for a district that values progressive tax policies.
“With Wyandotte being so blue and Democratic, it was strange to me that someone in such a strong area wouldn’t advocate for more progressive values and wasn’t listening to their voters to do things that benefit them,” he said.
“If you’re in a strong blue area, that means you’re much safer to be able to strongly advocate for the things your community needs without having to worry about losing your seat.”
Sen. Haley, the incumbent in Taylor’s race, said Taylor lacked an understanding of Wyandotte County, which Haley classified as a moderate Democratic community that is more concerned with economic than social issues.
He described Taylor as an outsider whose campaign shows a “real disregard and disregard” for community representation.
“I have served for over 20 years, or longer than my now opponent has been alive,” he said. “Point blank, I don’t think he’s ready. I don’t think we’ve seen a 20-year-old senator, and certainly not in many decades.
“The reason for this is because life experience and community connections are helpful in terms of representation. That’s difficult to achieve at an early stage,” Haley said.
If elected, Taylor hopes to focus on increasing the availability of affordable housing in the state, protecting Right to vote and lowering property taxes – something Kansas lawmakers did We talk a lot about it, but we don’t take much action in the last years.
Growing up in the ‘politics of the present’
Rep. Brandon Woodard, a Lenexa Democrat elected at age 27, recalled that the “final straw” before running for office was hearing a representative say that students should just work — like “mowing lawns or delivering newspapers” — to pay for higher education.
“It was so clear how distant our representatives were,” he said. “They didn’t understand the problems young people face. We saw this group of young people running because people are generally out of touch with the largest voting bloc in Kansas.”
In Kansas, where the average age is approximately 38 years oldthe largest block of voters is made up of people under 50 years old.
On both sides of the aisle, Gen Z and millennial lawmakers interviewed by The Star agreed that issues like affordable housing, public school funding, child care and higher education costs are not being addressed quickly enough to prevent young graduates from fleeing the statewhich has long been a priority among Kansas leaders.
They said they now experience these issues differently than some of their older colleagues, which influences the policies they prioritize.
Alexis Simmons, a 28-year-old Democrat seeking election in House District 58, said she was a student when former governor Sam Brownback cut public school budgets to fill gaps in his administration’s tax cuts has affected the way she thinks about education funding.
“I wish we had younger voices to add to the conversation,” she said.
When she worked in the state House before running for office, she saw older lawmakers debate issues like marijuana legalization in a way that didn’t accurately reflect what she saw as the views of younger Kansasans.
“The people that are there do a great job, don’t get me wrong,” Simmons said. “But being a young, single woman with no children means different questions would be raised. To say it is disproportionate would be an understatement.”
Sen. Chase Blasi, a Republican from Wichita, is the youngest state senator serving Kansas, at age 30. He, along with other lawmakers, said senior lawmakers are open to hearing their ideas.
“Younger Republicans and I have been championing issues like child care for some time,” Blasi said. “This is something our older colleagues have largely embraced and supported. But from my perspective as a young parent, we hold onto these issues because they have been neglected.
“Some of the things that young people struggle with are just not an issue for many of them — they don’t have young children, they’ve already graduated from college,” he said. “In this way, they have been more than supportive in helping us represent the youth of Kansas.”
Logan Ginavan, a 21-year-old University of Kansas student, is running for a seat in House District 46, which includes part of Lawrence. He said he grew up doing school shooting drills and fears he’ll never be able to buy a house — something he said some older lawmakers aren’t able to fully understand.
“What young people will be is a simple, modern voice – a voice that grew up in the politics of the present, not the past,” he said.
Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican who is not seeking re-election, said an influx of Gen Z and millennial candidates would be good for the Legislature.
“Having a mix of ages always brings a different perspective,” she said. “And you can never dismiss a perspective because you can always learn from it.”
A new generation of problems
Gen Z and millennial candidates are also prioritizing issues on which the Legislature has yet to take major action — such as artificial intelligence and climate change.
This year, Colorado passed the nation’s first comprehensive law placing protective guardrails around artificial intelligence. Kansas does not have a technology committee and has not yet begun conversations about AI.
Ginavan said the state could be caught off guard if it doesn’t act.
“I have no doubt that when it comes to technology and AI, my generation absolutely has to be at the table,” he said.
Regarding climate change, Taylor said that young people could help bring a climate commission to the Legislature “because we will be the ones there who feel its effects”.
Donnovan Dillon, a 21-year-old activist with the civic engagement group Loud Light, said electing Kansans or recent college graduates will help the state identify the needs of that demographic.
For years, Kansas has struggled to keep college graduates in the state, and research shows the state can will not be able to meet the demands of skilled workers in the next decade.
“Lawmakers talk a lot about recent Kansas grads keeping them there,” he said. “But they are not reflected in current policy. So why wouldn’t I move to a state where there are more opportunities, or where I feel more welcome, or where the politics reflect what I want to happen?”
Breaking down office barriers
Previously some of the lowest paid lawmakers in the US – earning less than $30,000 annually – Kansas lawmakers passed a pay raise last year aimed at encouraging younger candidates to run for public office. By the start of the next session, lawmakers’ salaries will nearly double.
Legislators spend their first three or four months in the State House, where they work as full-time legislators. But many young lawmakers said the obligation to the Legislature makes it nearly impossible to hold down full-time jobs or run for office without making significant financial sacrifices.
Several young lawmakers, including Hoheisel, Woodard, Anderson and Rep. Rui Xu, a Democrat from Westwood, said they had seen the pay discourage potential candidates from running, and Simmons said he would not have been able to run without the raise.
“You want a complete representation of Kansas. You want teachers, workers and young people to compete,” Hoheisel said. “This will help our Legislature look like our state.”
Chairman Pro Tem Blake Carpenter, a 33-year-old Derby Republican, said state campaign finance laws allow young people to run and win just a few thousand dollars, which can cost much more in other states.
But Simmons said younger candidates still face fundraising challenges.
“One advantage of being an older candidate is that you are more likely to have a network of established, financially stable people who can afford to donate to political campaigns,” she said. “I imagine most young candidates are less likely to have strong fundraising networks.”
Anderson, the only Gen Z member in the Legislature, said he believes voters are more than ready to see younger representation.
“People want to see younger people getting involved in politics,” he said. “Our government has to continue to evolve with the times and with everything around us. We have to keep up with this.”
The Star reached out to several other young Republican candidates but did not hear back.
