FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEOct. 15, 2026 New report: 1 in 3 congressional candidates is Gen Z or millennial For the first time, millennials are the largest generation running for the U.S. Senate WASHINGTON — Young Americans are running for Congress in record numbers in 2026. More than a third of candidates (36.4%) belong to the two…
Congress’ youth wave faces a brutal reality
By Russell Contreras | Axios Gen Z and millennials have launched their biggest bid yet to remake Congress, but roughly seven in 10 were out by early September, a new report finds. Why it matters: These two generations are struggling to clear the first hurdles of a political system that rewards experience, fundraising and established…
Kinsleigh’s Law: A Bipartisan Promise to Protect Indiana’s Children
By Maya Mukherjee Kinsleigh Welty was 5 years old. Her mother frequently confined her to a closet and fed her very little. By the time Kinsleigh was found unresponsive in her Indianapolis home in 2024, she was extremely malnourished, and she died as a result of that severe neglect. Today, her mother is serving a…
Younger candidates are finding it tough to break into Congress
By Claire Leibowitz, Joshua Feldstein, and Abigail Walker | The Hill More than 100 Generation Z candidates launched bids this cycle to run for Congress, per Future Caucus, but few have been successful. The attempts to run highlight how young adults are frustrated with partisan gridlock and want to enter the political sphere, even if their attempts…
How a Small-Town Newspaper Inspired South Dakota’s Anti-SLAPP Law
By Maya Mukherjee Sen. Amber Hulse, R-S.D., first encountered anti-SLAPP laws as an attorney, when the law firm where she works defended President Donald Trump in a 2024 lawsuit stemming from comments he made during a presidential debate, and the case introduced Hulse to laws designed to defend people from burdensome litigation aimed at chilling…
The Problem with “Fighting Polarization” and a Better Path to Unity
By Kathryn Peters | Nonprofit Quarterly What if the solution to our deeply polarized political life was more imagination, not less conflict? Centering so much of our public discourse on division—whether lamenting how far apart we stand or countering that we still have a lot in common—does not serve to heal those divides and may…
Meet the Standout Capstones from the 2025-2026 Innovation Fellowship
By Maya Mukherjee The 2025-2026 round of Future Caucus Innovation Fellowships has wrapped up. The fellowship invites cross-partisan young lawmakers to deeply explore a policy area and identify opportunities for action in their own state. Future Caucus fosters their learnings and connects them to experts, research, and one another. Each Innovation Fellow introduces bipartisan legislation…
The Politicians Who Can Fix America’s Polarization Problem Will Win
By Layla Zaidane | The Fulcrum Political predictions are notoriously unreliable, but here is one I am willing to stand behind: the elected officials who figure out how to govern across difference will dominate the next decade of American politics. With dysfunction and paralysis having become the status quo in Washington, elected officials who work…
Keeping Pace with AI: Young Lawmakers Search for Solutions
By Maya Mukherjee Artificial intelligence is increasingly present in our everyday lives, from customer service and search engines to targeted advertising and countless behind-the-scenes applications. For state lawmakers, that rapid transformation presents a difficult challenge: how do you regulate a technology that evolves faster than the legislative process? “It became apparent that we were entering…
Rep. Brandon Guffey: My Life’s Mission Will Be Forever to Protect Children Online
By Maya Mukherjee Brandon Guffey had just won his primary for a seat in the South Carolina statehouse in 2022 when his life changed in a way he never could have prepared for. His son Gavin, 17, was targeted online by someone who solicited explicit images from him, then threatened to send them to everyone…