Gun Activist Maxwell Frost Poised To Become First Gen Z Member Of Congress Transcript

Lawrence O’Donnell: (00:02)
Here’s the election I’ve been watching tonight. 25 year old Maxwell Alejandro Frost, the former Organizing Director at March For Our Lives who joined us on this program just last night has won the Democratic primary for the house seat in Florida vacated by Congresswoman Val Demmings who won her primary tonight to challenge Republican Senator Marco Rubio in the general election. That Florida district is a heavily Democratic district. And so Mr. Frost is very likely going to be the next member of Congress from that district. And joining us now is Maxwell Alejandro Frost. I am going to address you the way you will soon be addressed on the floor of the House of Representatives and in committee and that is, Mr. Frost of Florida. Thank you very much. This is your third time. You were here when your campaign began. You were here last night on the very last minute of your campaign. How did you do it? 25 year old convinces that congressional district that you are the person to do this job? How did you do it?

Maxwell Frost: (01:09)
Well, it just wasn’t me. It was the movement that we built, our volunteers, the people who are knocking doors every day, making phone calls. And at the end of the day, it’s our message. It’s a hopeful message, one that says that no matter who you are, you deserve healthcare, you deserve a good job, you deserve a union, you deserve the right to an abortion. And these are the things that we were talking about with folks in this district. But the other thing is also looking at the context of this campaign. We won this in the midst of a dark year in Florida because of Governor Ron DeSantis. So it was hope, despite that. And I truly believe that’s why we won this race and why we’re going to win the general in November.

Lawrence O’Donnell: (01:47)
Did the right wing approaches of the Governor actually help energize your campaign?

Maxwell Frost: (01:58)
I think what it did is set the stage for this righteous anger that folks have here in Florida. And what we did is we wanted to transform that righteous angle into a love, a love of the people who have been oppressed by this Governor. This Governor has said any issue that you can think of is the problem and is the fault of gay folks, of our LGBTQ plus community, of black folks, of immigrants. He scapegoated every vulnerable community for every single issue that he has failed to solve himself. And so that is part of the reason why we won this campaign. It’s about the positive message despite what he’s done. But we’re moving forward. We’re looking towards November. We’re going to elect Congressman Charlie Chris to be the next Governor of Florida. And we’re going to remove Ron from the Governor’s mansion.

Lawrence O’Donnell: (02:47)
Maxwell Alejandro Frost, it has been a remarkable journey from your first time on this program to tonight. Thank you very much for finding the time to join us tonight. We really appreciate it.

Maxwell Frost: (02:59)
Thank you for having me and folks can follow us at frostforcongress.com.