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…
Building the Next 250: Young Lawmakers Convene for the 10th Annual Future Summit
By Maya Mukherjee On a Friday night in Washington, D.C., a Democratic state legislator from Vermont climbed onto a mechanical bull in a Western-themed bar while a Republican lawmaker from South Dakota brought down the house with a karaoke rendition of Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman.” Their colleagues from dozens of states cheered them on, putting…
Young people don’t want to run for office because they fear being killed
By Christian Paz | Vox It’s been just over a year since a shooter in Minnesota attacked two Democratic state lawmakers and their families in their homes — killing state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, while injuring state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. This “night of terror” stunned the political world: the shooter…
Young policymakers come together to bridge the bipartisan divide in Washington
In the latest installment of the NBC News’ Common Ground series, Future Caucus members Georgia State Rep. Steven Sainz (R) and West Virginia State Del. Kayla Young (D) join Meet the Press NOW to discuss their work on delivering bipartisan support to their communities.
Young lawmakers talk online child safety and AI policy at annual bipartisan summit
By Amelia Twyman | States Newsroom WASHINGTON — Young Democratic and Republican state lawmakers from across the country found common ground Friday on the need to regulate artificial intelligence and kids’ online safety. Legislators at an annual conference hosted by Future Caucus, an organization that aims to strengthen bipartisan dialogue among Gen Z and millennial…
Paradise, If You Can Afford It: Hawaii Dusts Off a 1980s Housing Program to Help Young Locals Buy In
By Maya Mukherjee Hawaii is known for its natural beauty, its beaches, its poke bowls and countless pop culture phenomena like White Lotus and Lilo and Stitch. But behind its reputation as a tropical paradise lies a real problem: the cost of living has become so high that many locals cannot afford to stay in…
Prescriptive Policy: How Lawmakers’ Health Care Backgrounds Are Shaping Harm Reduction
By Eva Herrick and Elizabeth Rosen The opioid crisis is one of the nation’s most significant public health emergencies. In 2023, an average of 217 people died every day from an opioid overdose, straining the economy, health care systems and communities across the country. For legislators, tackling a problem this complex requires diverse perspectives and…