On May 26th, the Millennial Action Project’s President and CEO Layla Zaidane joined the Kansas Leadership Center for a Facebook Live conversation, Millennials in Public Service, to discuss the rising influence of young people in politics. Hosted by Chris Green, managing editor of The Journal (the Kansas Leadership Center’s digital publication) the panel also included young legislators who lead the Millennial Action Project’s Kansas Future Caucus:
Rep. Rui Xu, (D-Westwood), Kansas Future Caucus Co-Chair
Rep. Nick Hoheisel, (R-Wichita), Kansas Future Caucus Co-Vice Chair
Rep. Brandon Woodard, (D-Lenexa), Kansas Future Caucus Co-Vice Chair
Also on the panel was The Journal’s communications director Sam Smith.
Chris Green opened the discussion with a reflection on the gains that young people made in the Kansas state legislature and across the country during the 2020 election. Millennials in particular, Chris stated, are expanding their involvement in public service. He cited MAP’s Millennials on the Rise Project, which found a 266% increase in millennials running for Congress between the 2018 and 2020 election cycles.
Layla explained that MAP is working to harness the political energy of our nation’s younger generations. By maintaining a network of bipartisan caucuses for young legislators in Congress and 31 state houses, MAP is building the cross-partisan trust necessary to solve future-facing policy issues. MAP’s role, said Layla “is to give these young leaders who are on the panel today, and 1,600 of them across the country, the infrastructure, the resources, and the support that they need to be better bridge builders, to be better coalition boulders, and ultimately to pass legislation that matters to the communities they serve.”
The three legislators described why they were drawn to MAP’s mission and became involved with the Kansas Future Caucus. Rep. Xu stated that Millennials have had a political experience largely defined by partisan discord, and so they “inherently crave” collaborative, good-faith political conversations. Rep. Hoheisel emphasized the Future Caucus’s focus on solutions. Though its members favor different policy approaches they all share a genuine commitment to solving problems and to building a better, more prosperous Kansas.
An excellent example of the Future Caucus’s policy collaboration is Kansas House Bill 2187, which passed on May 26th. Rep Xu explained that, despite the broad ideological span of the Future Caucus, its 18 members agreed that the cost of housing is a major issue in Kansas. After discussion, the group threw its collective weight behind the measure, which created tax-free savings accounts for those saving to buy their first home. Rep. Woodard described how the Future Caucus’s collaboration on the bill brought an outpouring of support from advocates, lobbyists, and other legislators heartened by the group’s bipartisanship.
Soon the conversation turned to the three legislators’ personal experience in politics, with each relaying their motivation to become involved in public service. Rep. Woodard explained his dissatisfaction with Kansas lawmakers’ lack of focus on higher education policy. Rep. Xu described a feeling of duty sparked by social and political turmoil in 2016. Rep. Hoheisel remembered the moment, as a college student, that he resolved to get rid of the tax on required textbooks (an issue on which he and Rep. Woodard have since collaborated).
As the panel discussed the rewards and challenges of working as a state legislator, several themes emerged. All three lawmakers stressed the genuine satisfaction of changing their constituents’ life for the better. The panelists acknowledged the personal sacrifices of public service, agreeing that modernizing and properly funding our legislative bodies is vital to improved policymaking.
The last section of the discussion centered on the importance of youth representation in government. Rep. Xu argued that young lawmakers have a more future-oriented perspective on policy. Reps. Woodard and Hoheisel agreed, encouraging young people to take the leap and get involved in public service, whether at the local, state, or federal level.
Layla summarized the value of bringing young peoples’ perspective to government. “There’s a way to apply a generational lens to problems that have tended to stick in partisan conversations and doing that unlocks, not a middle-ground compromise solution, but a new layer of really creative, innovative ways to think about future-oriented solutions.”
If you have questions about MAP’s Future Caucuses or are a state legislator looking for policy resources, please reach out to MAP’s State Caucus Network Director, Jennifer Blemur at jennifer@millennialaction.org.