Young People in Politics

The On the Rise report is the most comprehensive data available on young people running for Congress in 2022. This is the best resource for researchers, journalists, and candidates looking for comprehensive data on every single millennial and Gen Zer running for Congress.

We believe in the power of the next generation to improve how our nation governs. Our audacious mission centers on activating young leaders to bridge the partisan divide and transform American politics. The numbers in this report prove that change is already underway. 

Despite common misconceptions about the partisanship of rising generations, members of Congress 45 years old or younger have been scored as more bipartisan than their older peers for the last three Congresses in a row. This surge in young candidates running for office is an encouraging sign for Americans hoping for a fresh, more collaborative approach to governing. When young people get elected to public office, they govern differently.

With one out of every six candidates for Congress this cycle coming from the millennial generation — a 57% increase in the number of millennial candidates compared to 2020 — it’s clear young Americans are running toward what needs to be fixed, not away from it.

The 334 candidates who ran for Congress (House and Senate) in November 2022 were age 45 or younger. In 2022, the first Gen Zers ran — with two on the November ballots. 

Approximately 1 out of 6 Congressional candidates nationwide were millennials. 

From 2020 to 2022, there was a 42% increase in candidates age 45 and under running for Congress. This includes a 57% increase for true millennial candidates (born between 1981 and 1996).

Of the total candidates tracked, 103 were women, 230 were men, and there was one non-binary candidate. In 2020, 41% of the candidates age 45 and under were women. In 2022, that number dipped to just under 31%.

A total of 54 millennial candidates for Congress were incumbents while 53 millennials ran for re-election in the House, and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) was up for re-election in the Senate.

The report covers candidates for the general election on November 8, 2022. Lists of candidates were obtained from each state’s Secretary of State website, or when not available from Ballotopedia. Write-in candidates and those deemed multiple decades older than 45 were eliminated from data collection.

Ages were then obtained from proprietary candidate surveys distributed by Future Caucus as well as publicly available information: a combination of Wikipedia pages, campaign websites, news articles, social media profiles, and a Radaris search. Candidates for whom age could not confidently be concluded are not included in these numbers.