 Hello, everyone. Good evening and welcome to the National Archives in Washington, DC, whether you're with us here in McGowan Theatre or joining us online on YouTube. My name is Colleen Shogan and I'm the Archivist of the United States. I'm still new enough, but that's fun to say. I'm pleased that you will join us tonight for this conversation. Before we begin, I want to tell you about our next in-person program that we're going to host in this theater. On Saturday, July 1st at 2 p.m., we will revisit the 2004 movie National Treasure with the hosts of the National Treasure Hunt podcast, Aubrey Paris and Emily Black. They will discuss their book, National Treasure Hunt, one step short of crazy, and signed copies for attendees. During the program, they will unearth lesser-known stories from history relevant to the movie and reveal behind the scenes secrets. After their talk, of course, we will have a free screening of National Treasure at 5 p.m., so that will be on July 1st. I hope you will join us for that event. Civics Education has long been a part of NARA's mission. And almost two years ago, NARA launched Civics for All of Us. This national initiative offers live interactive distance learning programs and workshops for K-12 students and educators, as well as resources and activities that can be used anytime. We are now in the midst of civic season, the period between Juneteenth and July 4th, when we encourage citizens of all ages to participate in our democracy and engage with public history institutions. I was heartened this past weekend to see the lines are really around the block at the National Archives, filled with thousands of engaged citizens who were here to view the Emancipation Proclamation and General Order Number 3 on display. And in case you missed it, the National Archives is thrilled to announce its intention to display the Emancipation Proclamation permanently in the rotunda, rightfully assuming its place next to the other historic Charters of Freedom. Thank you. Our guest this evening is Congressman Maxwell Frost, the only Gen Z member of Congress. I look forward to hearing his perspective on how we can promote history and civic engagement amongst our younger generations. He is being interviewed by Soledad O'Brien, who, like me, is a member of Gen X, if I did the math correctly. So briefly, I want to give a little shout out. If we're talking about generations and generational politics, I want to give a brief shout out to the Gen Xers. I might be biased, but I think we are an underestimated cohort. Our lives have bridged the analog digital divide, and consequently, we serve as connectors between generations. We remember life before the internet, before iPhones and before social media, but we've also made the transition to the brave new world of the future. So I look forward to this conversation between these two very impressive individuals. I think it will be illuminating, it will be informative, and certainly entertaining. Now I'm going to turn the program over to my friend, Governor Jim Blanchard, the chair and president of the National Archives Foundation. As the National Archives non-profit partner, the Foundation generates financial support for National Archives exhibits, public programs like this, and educational initiatives. Introducing America's records to people across the United States and the world. Jim Blanchard has dedicated his life to public service and law, having served with distinction as governor of the state of Michigan, a member of the United States Congress, and ambassador from the United States to Canada. Governor Blanchard is currently senior counsel and chair emeritus of government affairs at DLA Piper. Please join me in welcoming Governor Blanchard to the stage. Thank you very much, Colleen, and we're so delighted that you are our new archivist, confirmed recently by the Senate, which was a wonderful thing. Do we have a great show for you tonight? Yes. By the way, we have a whole group from Civics Unplug that's here. Show us where you are. Well, so on behalf, welcome on behalf of the National Archives Foundation. As the archivist said, we're the non-profit partner to the National Archives, which is an independent federal agency. This program, as you've heard, is Gen Z and Civic Engagement. Of course, we're featuring our own very new member of Congress, Maxwell Frost. You can applaud again. And member of our board will do the interview and I'll introduce her in a moment, Soledad O'Brien, who is a pro. Now, I've had to learn, you know, being an old guy here, I've had to learn about Gen Z. I've learned that that's the generation born between 1997 and 2012. And of course, Congressman Frost is the first and only Gen Z member of Congress, which is part of our program tonight, our exciting program. I'm reminiscing for a moment if you'll indulge me. Because 49 years ago, I was elected to Congress, one of the younger. I was mistaken to be a page, true, walking to and from the Capitol. I came here with 70, the same year, 75 new Democrats and 17 Republicans. It was a real upheaval. Almost all of us were members of the silent generation, born between 1925 and 1945. Although history will show that we were not all that silent, I might add, we were considered real rabble rousers. I would say that we were part of the war baby group, which my mother says was a select group of intelligent, silent generation. That was my mother saying that. Anyway, we had one baby boomer. But basically, it was the silent generation. What's interesting to note is Joe Biden is the only member of the silent generation ever to the elected president. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? Now, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, all Donald Trump are all baby boomers. So it's time again for the Gen Z to emerge. I would also say it was interesting to note back then, there were only 19 women, five of whom were in our class in Congress, 19. Today, there are 125. And it's growing. I can assure you with that being from Michigan, by the way, with women holding all the major offices and doing a fabulous job. That same year, 1975, there were only 14 African Americans in Congress, one of whom was in our class. Today, there are 60 and growing. Alright, so progress can occur. Good things can occur. I guess that would be one of my messages is why we want you to be involved in our government, in our democracy and civics and community affairs and supporting candidates, whatever party who believe in good government and the future for our generations. But our program tonight is about the future and to moderate our session and to introduce Congressman Frost formally is our very own, as I mentioned, Soledad O'Brien. I want to mention a few things about her because she is incredibly distinguished. In fact, Newsweek Magazine named her as one of the 15 people who make America great. Soledad O'Brien is an award winning journalist, speaker, author, philanthropist, and founder and CEO of the Starfish Media Group, and a member of the National Archives Board of Directors, as you've been told. She anchors and produces the Hearst Television Political Magazine program called Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien. She also reports for HBO Real Sports. And she's the author of two books. This is really interesting because she's so versatile. She has anchored or reported for all three networks, Fox and Oxygen, MSNBC, CNN, Al Jocera, Natural Geographic, PBS NewsHour, and WebMD. As you can imagine, she's won numerous awards, including three Emmys, the George Peabody Award and an Alfred I. DuPont Prize, and the Gracie, which recognizes exemplary programming created by women, for women, and about women. As I mentioned, Newsweek has named her one of the 15 people who makes America great. And with her husband, she is founder of the Power Herfell Foundation, which helps young women get to and get through college. And she was just in May inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. I give you Soledad O'Brien and Congressman Martin Frost. Hi, everybody. Good evening. It's so nice to see number one, a full house. And number two, some really young people in the audience. I love it. So thanks for joining us. Maxwell Alejandro Frost is the US representative for Florida's 10th District Assuming Office on January 3 2023. He was elected, as you've heard, at age 25, which makes him the first member of Congress who's in Gen Z to serve. He was born in 1997 to a Lebanese Puerto Rican mother and Haitian father, and your adopted mom immigrated from Cuba, and your adopted fathers from Kansas. So I guess that's one of those check all the boxes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I thought it was really interesting that some of the issues that you've said have defined kind of your political education. A lot of the ones that I've covered as a reporter over the years, the new town school shooting, Occupy Wall Street, the Columbine massacre, the Orlando nightclub shooting, the killing of Trayvon Martin. And because of that, I thought we could start our conversation with a little bit about you growing up and your influences. Obviously, we want to talk about your journey to Congress. We want to talk about why you think civics education is really, really critical. And of course, how your contemporaries think about their role in government today. So welcome. We're very excited to have you here at the National Archives and our audience as well. So let's hop right into it. I mentioned a little bit about your family. So my family, you're the Florida Cubans. We were the New Jersey Cubans, which are very different kind of Cubans. Tell me a little bit about your influences growing up. Yeah, so my dad's a musician and my mother is a special education educator. She just retired after 37 years of public school education. And not to be cliche, my parents are really my biggest influences. You know, growing up my mom's hard of service of her people who know about especially special education, ESC, it's a very difficult job that demands a lot from you. I mean, I grew up going to visit my mom's students, people who typically are cast out of society and not thought of. I grew up seeing my mom staying up until one, two, three a.m. working on IEPs, the individual education plans for her students and seeing her spend all of her money and pour her heart out into her students and worry about her students and think about her students. And I also grew up with a dad who had a music studio in the middle of our house. There was always music in the house. My dad would go over to my biological mother's house when I was in the womb and put headphones on her belly and play music and you know, he says, that's why I love music now. I guess that, you know, I'll give him that. But so music and that hard of service and the arts, it all really combined to create actual process as I was growing up. My dad was the he would yell at the news every day. And so I grew up listening to him yell at the news and learned a little bit about politics through that and an elementary school would go to school and try to pick fights and debates with people not knowing what you know I was talking about to be honest. But those influence really meant a lot but another experience that I always think about is almost every weekend growing up we would take that four-hour drive and go to Miami, go to Hialeah to visit my mom's side of the family, which were all Cubans and growing up and the music and the culture and et cetera, I think all of that also really played a huge part in my own personal politics and the policies I believe in because it's all really surrounding this concept of, you know, family and family. And growing up through that, I think a lot of like Latinos have the same experience. I think definitely has played a part in who I am today. And so- Did you always want to be in politics from- No. When you're getting into the- Well, you're asking people for debates where you're like, because one day I will be a congressman. No, no, not at all. I- Growing up, I was kind of- I got in trouble a lot. And I actually like ran into one of my teachers from when I was in sixth grade like a few months ago and she was like, I was looking through our detention binder and in my head I was like, what kind of person is looking through the detention binder? She had been retired for a while. And so either way she kept them and she was like, did you know you were in detention 75% year sixth grade year? That sounds about right. I wasn't bad bad. I was just like- I was just annoying, you know. I like to talk. I like to make people laugh. Like that was the kind of bad I was. Either way, so I always had problems redirecting my energy and figuring out like what I wanted to do and ADHD and talking all the time and making jokes all the time. And it wasn't until I got involved with music really that I was able to kind of redirect my energy and figure out just how to kind of fully immerse myself in something. But I'm the type- I've been obsessive personality so like growing up I'd watch some de-com about something whether it's like karate or cooking or whatever and I'd want to do that for like a month. I watched Cadet Kelly. I wanted to go into military. I watched any and so that was kind of like my upbringing and so I changed what I wanted to do a million times. It wasn't until I joined this program called Civil Air Patrol which is kind of like ROTC but with the Air Force that for the longest time I wanted to go to the Air Force and be a lawyer there and that was what I wanted to do for like two years in high school. That's like the longest time I had a consistent thing I wanted to do. And I have really bad asthma and so I was kind of disqualified from doing that and ended up working in politics. It kind of came naturally through like the opportunities of volunteering. Did you learn about civics and politics through school at all or was that just completely separate and it was your own sort of journey? No I did like so I went to an arts middle school in high school. It's kind of like high school musical except mainly like black people in latino are so better. But and I always joke around I was a jock we didn't have any sports but the jazz band was like the football team. So I was a percussion major and so I was in the jazz band and so it was an experience when I was 15 years old that really thrust me fully into politics. I was always into it. I did like speech competitions and stuff like that so I was always aware but it was never something I wanted to do as my career. More is just a passion and it wasn't until the Sandy Hook shooting I remember before every jazz band concert my best friends and I would go to there was a Fridays across the street from my school so we would always go to Fridays and like load up on a ton of junk food. We're sitting there eating and there's a silence that falls across the restaurant. We look at each other we're like wondering what's going on. We look at the screen and see somebody walked into an elementary school in Newtown Connecticut and murdered 20 children and six teachers. I grew up in the suburbs where daily gun violence was not a factor of my life and so seeing that kind of provided this emotional whiplash that made me highly uncomfortable and I think we all know that when you're very uncomfortable it's a place where your heart can be changed the most and I went to the show that night and I remember I couldn't play right because I kept looking over my shoulders on a stage at the exit door because I was anxious that someone was going to walk in and shoot everybody and shoot my friends and my family and myself and I ended up going to DC for the first time for the memorial that was going on and it was there that I met the families of the victims and survivors and like meeting people who were like six years old and 16 years old with a demeanor of 60 year olds like crying over their families that were were killed changed my life forever and that's where I really said this I want to dedicate the rest of my life to ensuring this never happens again and you know you you get into this work for one reason I know we've got a lot of problems and it's really what keeps you in there and so that's really what thrusts me into action I came home. Was that fair to say that like sort of gun violence would be the way in because the Parkland young people at Parkland high school have said a similar thing right that their activism was sort of empowered when they realized that they were in the middle of this gun violence debate. Exactly gun violence is what thrusts me into action it was my call to action that's what we call an organizing that was my call to action and when you start looking into gun violence you realize that it's a really the symptom of deep root problems in this country and so then you learn about poverty and you learn about the climate crisis and you learn about healthcare and you learn about how it's all intertwined and it's all connected and then you want to work on everything and then so I got to get back to school I organize on my campus I like you know was like what else can I do and I ran for student government president and was super involved in like the civic side of things in high school because of Sandy Hook and then when I graduated high school I took a job as an organizer on a campaign in Fort Myers I literally like pack my niece on Versa up just like a month after graduating high school and moved for a job in Fort Myers and when you're on campaigns you live in what's called supporter housing because the campaigns are too cheap to like get you a place to live so it's usually someone who has like an extra room in their house and you stay with them I've stayed in about like probably 16 different supporter housing throughout my career organizing stayed in some very nice ones and some places I could not afford now but my first one was I split a room with a lady in her like trailer and so that was interesting but she was the nicest lady ever and it was such a good experience but that's how I got started you said you know then you you sort of realize that all these things are interconnected and for you it made you want to go and work on them there's a lot of data that suggests that a lot of the folks of this age in this audience the reaction is not that but they actually kind of feel like it's overwhelming it's impossible and they they kind of sign out of it they don't want to go work on it but they're actually a little bit disinterested in government and in politics are you seeing that changing in your generation I do and you know I always talk about this because a question people always ask me is like young people aren't voting what are you going to do to get young people to vote and there's truth to that but I also like to push back Gen Z and young millennials this this is the most active young generation of politics and the history of our country and I don't just say that like oh you know I'm the Gen Z guy and I'm saying it to hype up Gen Z but it's in the data like in 2020 we had the highest youth voter turnout in the history of our country ever in 2018 we had the highest youth voter turnout in a midterm ever this past midterm we had the second highest turnout in a midterm ever and so when you look at the youth vote turnout you see older people you know are voting at these levels and our level is a lot lower that's number one not a uniquely American problem it's a global problem young people voting we're actually a lot better at this than a lot of other countries empowering young people to vote but it's also not just a problem that is you know going on now our our youth voter turnout has always made up the smallest piece of the pie throughout our country's history and so I think when you get that context it it allows you to kind of think about it in a different way and so we have the highest youth voter turnout now young people at our at our current age every other generation voted at way lower numbers than we are right now and so are we where we need to be no we have a lot of work to do but we are at the highest point our country's ever been at and so I kind of like when people come at me and they say you know young people aren't voting at all I like to say well we are we are more than our country has ever voted before that gives me a lot of hope and I think a lot of that has to do with number one people seeing themselves represent it in government a little bit more but number two these huge social movements which I think have given young people a political home where maybe they otherwise haven't seen it and so we've seen that describe that for me tell me about some of them and how that how that works what's engaging young people and what issues I think it's no coincidence that we had the highest youth voter turnout in a midterm the year that somebody walked into Marjory Stilman Douglas killed 17 people young people came up and said we call BS and hosted the largest marches led by young people we've seen in our country that happened this the same year that we had the highest youth voter turnout in a midterm I don't think it is coincidence that in 2020 we woke up one morning and go on Twitter and see a black man being lynched in broad daylight George Floyd young people and all people took to the streets the protest and that same year we had the highest youth voter turnout in the history of our country I don't think that's a coincidence I think all these things are connected I'm not saying it's the only reason but I do think it's part of it and I think I see a through line between our generation and our ancestors and people who fought during the civil rights movement about taking the way we feel about the world and whether it's hitting the streets or doing mutual aid or including it in our art or getting people to vote finding a political home to make that happen and there's still a lot of work to do there's still a lot of work to do but I feel good about the trajectory of where we're going there's some data that shows yes I think that's really worth applauding for there's some data that shows that young people tend to focus more on service as their way in versus politics as it was so they see a problem and they work on the problem versus saying let's work on the policy yeah why do you think that is and do you think that's true I have to look into a little bit more but with my kind of experience that makes a lot of sense because when I went out to protest so for when Black Lives Matter protests started I was the national organizing director at March for Our Lives which is the organization that came after the shooting that happened in Parkland so I was working at a non-profit nine to five on zoom because this was during lockdown and then I would go out after that into the community and go protest and run into people organizing that I have never met before and I've been organizing in Orlando since I was 15 and so I was talking to people they were like oh yeah I mean I saw what happened and I just like felt like I needed to come out here and like be involved and I've never organized before and this is my first time and hearing that from a lot of the people organizing these protests I had like tens of thousands of people like put a huge smile on my face because I was like this is how this is how we change this country is people seeing it in injustice or seeing something they like and feeling that call to action stepping up to the plate and taking the action and I do see that in Gen Z and young millennials right now that they want to be a part of the immediate solution I think part of it has to do with like we're in patient about this stuff but I think that impatience is actually really important to the process and obviously like we learn about civics and the way policy making works and everything and you learn that that's a that's not a quick process but then you learn more about it and you realize but it also can be and so I think that also gives me a lot of hope but I think you know it's also directly connected to the fact that there's a tax on education and civic education across this country right now and it's hard for especially young people who might not understand the process to see an injustice and immediately say you know this is how we can work through the system to fix it you know there's a lot of not just young people I think kind of yeah in general yeah I mean it's very inaccessible it's difficult to understand I think part of that's on purpose but and I think that's part of what fuels you know 50% of the country doesn't vote it's not just 50% of young people it's 50% of the whole country and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that policy seems a little bit inaccessible to people so you're very active on social media we follow each other on on on twitter and I'm sorry no and I apologize as well because anybody on twitter understands what we're saying but a lot of people would say sure people are activists but they're activists on social media meaning they are since you know oh I'm so outraged how do you leverage and mobilize that because I have found social media amazing obviously for just gathering large groups of people and motivating them and educating them in a lot of ways but there is a bit of you know outrage that lives on social media that doesn't necessarily even translate into voting or translates into people actually physically caring about an issue yeah this is something I think about a lot because social media is new right it's new to our country it's I mean it's new to like humanity and I I always like to think about before social media existed because it's so new we still had problems with still getting people out to vote right we've had 50% of this country hasn't voted for a long time before social media so before people were able to just go online and like voice an opinion and then kind of leave it I wondered you know did it happen at the kitchen table did they not say anything at all like where what was the avenue that they were able to kind of express that and then do nothing because that did exist before social media and now people have the ability to voice the opinion and a bunch of people will see it and I see that as at least a little better than not voicing your opinion at all or not forming an opinion at all because you know social media I think does challenge you to kind of look at different opinions and kind of give your own sometimes it's not good and sometimes it's good but I think you know it is important that people see people shouldn't see social media as like the end all be off like oh I make a tweet oh I make a post and that's enough we know it's not enough like there's a lot of work we need to do in this country to build an equitable society for everybody but I also don't want to like demonize people who you know might not have health care might not be making enough money to pay their bills might are trying to take care of their kids et cetera for feeling like voicing their concern to the people in their network isn't enough I don't want to demonize like people for doing that but I also recognize that you know we do need more and it's this whole process of like holding multiple truths and like like a lot of times there's a lot of things that are true at the same time even though sometimes people would have you believe that's not the case and so I try to approach my organizing with a lot of love and grace and I always try to think about the fact that you know we're in some difficult times right now as far as building a society that works for everybody and I you know don't want to dismiss people because they feel like making a post is enough I feel like we can inspire them rather than shaming them and actually when I got elected I did a swearing in here which is like my real one it happened four days later at 2 a.m. but either way and I also did one at home and the one I did at home I did it in a the gym of a community center in Orlando I rented this gym and we went out and we knocked doors and we got people to come out we had 1200 people come out it was full it was like a rally and not only did I do my swearing in but I actually wrote a like pledge for my community to take with me and in the in that pledge it says I will not shame apathy I'll inspire action and that's what I'm all about is like I don't want to tell people oh you suck because you don't vote you know I don't think someone's going to hear that and go you're right let me know what I'm going to do where do I register to vote you know maybe some will but I rather like inspire someone into voting rather than shameless did you go into congress with a list of all right I'm going to go in here's a list of what I want to get done here's what I'm going to accomplish is that that's that how it worked for you a little bit I mean like you're running and you have like a platform on your website you have like a speech you give a stump speech where you're talking about you know similar issues every time you're connecting into different things and so a little bit I knew what I stood for I knew what I wanted to do but I feel like nothing really prepares you for it until you get in there and you figure out the lay of the land and the politics of it all what's been the biggest surprise the biggest surprise maybe bad surprise and good good surprise okay good surprise is I feel like you know you look at a place like congress which has like the worst approval ratings all the time right and for me like you know I used that the not fully but a lot of people would think and even me sometimes it's like everybody sucks and there's like a few good people and everyone else is like a horrible person you know that hates me and then and then you go in and it's you know more nuance than that and there's you know people you disagree with obviously and there's people that I I actually believe come in bad faith and etc but then you meet people who like you might not agree with they might not agree with you fully but when you like sit down with them you understand how they're coming to what they believe in and a lot of that has to do with experience sometimes has to do with generation sometimes has to do with style where they're from etc and you gain like appreciation for that diversity even though you might not agree with it and that's not to say like oh you should sit down with someone who hates your existence because of who you love and who you are and that's okay no but I think it you know I come in and I find a lot of my colleagues who maybe before I thought you know they're not doing enough they're not you know as progressive as me or this and that and I learn a lot about them that gives me a new understanding where I'm actually excited to work with them and hopefully maybe I can bring them along for a journey and maybe they'll bring me along for one too and and like you're just like these are all just people representing their home like doing the best that they can and and so that's something that's been nice is building those relationships with a lot of people because I have a lot of friends in the caucus who are like you know moderate progressive in different places that's been helpful for me the bad thing I mean I've known a bunch of people are crazy in Congress so like you don't have to be in Congress to know that the joke is like you come in for the first day you look around and go how did I get here and then you listen to some of your colleagues speaking and you're like how the hell did they get here but honestly for me not to this is kind of very practical but it's been the schedule and like getting used to the pacing so you all know we've had seven straight weeks of session where we're here for like four days and I fly back and most people will fly back every weekend home to do events at home so it's just a lot of flying and a lot of like back and forth and just a lot going on and you're also exerting just a lot of emotional labor and also a lot of brain power because you're handling so many different issues and so many different people like I'll come here and I'll do a bunch of meetings in a day each meeting is 20 minutes and you know for me I'm being like briefed on the meeting right beforehand and learning about it so that we can have a really good conversation and for the other person and I've been the other person my whole life like this is their issue that they know everything about and they've been prepping for this meeting and like I owe it to them as a member of Congress to give them my 110 percent when you give your 110 percent on many different issues 15 times in a day at the end of the day you know you're tired and like what I always say is like during the campaign I worked 12 to 16 hours a day and like worked really hard and I'd go home and I'd be exhausted now I go home and I'm working the same amount of hours but I'm exhausted and my head hurts and so that uh that change in pace I'm honestly still getting used to it I don't feel like like my current the way I'm doing things now I don't think it's like sustainable because I feel like I'm coming in new and I'm trying to meet like when I go home my schedule's packed to the brim because I want to meet everybody and I want to like do everything so I know I feel like I'm doing a good job but I also want to be sustainable because it's not a sprint like it's a marathon I'm here for at least two years right and I want to make sure I'm taking care of myself so I can take care of my constituents and like represent them in a good way and I haven't figured that out yet like I'm trying to figure out what that looks like and it's been hard on me and like my relationships with my family and my friends and just figuring out how to prioritize things and there's not a book you open that tells you how to do it everybody does it differently and so that's been like that's not bad but just something I'm still figuring out you mentioned being sworn in you know four days later two o'clock in the morning and that sort of I think witnessing history under underscoring some chaos in our Congress and I'm curious you know I worked at CNN in that time and it wasn't I was going to say a moment but it wasn't a moment where elected officials used to go into the back room to hash out their differences and then and then they started stopping at our cameras and they actually would only really want to engage with their constituents right that suddenly there was no value in being a problem solver and bringing people together in fact in some ways it would work against you if you were a person who looked for consensus if you were you know kind of a reasonable I tried to bring everybody together and you know finds a middle way a path it actually would get you a lot of trouble with some of your constituents and I got to kind of see that play out on television over a number of years and so I'm curious how you navigate that right as a progressive you know that there are people who look at you and you're trying to get them to support the things that you care about but it actually could undermine them and these are people in your own party undermine them with their own constituents how have you thought about that is it as crazy as it feels to some of us on the outside is it is it how do you deal with that it's interesting because most of the debates I've been a part of behind closed doors with my own caucus haven't even been about like progressive versus moderate but more on style of governance and tactics give me an example so I won't give an exact example but like I'll give you a general I'll give you like a I'll give you a general one like okay you you think you think about what I mean by style of governance and tactics is just the way you want to govern and there's you know the style of like backroom deals and problem solving and working that out I think you know like you said that we've had kind of a departure from that and my my thing is I believe that if there's you know try to keep things on partisan but if there's a group of people who have evolved or changed the way they're governing and another group of people who want to stick with the way it's it's been done you kind of tie your hands behind your back and you put yourself in a situation where it's difficult to advance the agenda you believe in and so that's one truth we hold the other one though is that we are here for consensus we are here to work things out and the way I like to think about it is that you know the passive bill it's a math problem either have the numbers or you don't and when you come to congress you have your your your dealt of you know your dealt a hand and those are your colleagues and those are your colleagues for the next two years unless you know something you know happens and uh I think that's important to know because if in those two years you want to get anything done you got to work with them so like I'm in the minority right now slim minority but democrats are the minority I can't pass a single bill without having at least four or five republicans on at least and so knowing that you want to build good relationships with people but I think a lot of times there's this you know people will think well if you're progressive you can't get things done because you're too far left or whatever and it's the same kind of people say that about you know on the other side and again I think it's less about that more though your approach to governance just because a certain group of people and like you know I'll say specifically on the right have all like a similar style of governance and they happen to have the same ideology doesn't mean everybody has that if that makes sense and so I think as our as the years go by I think that'll become clear for people that there is a progressive versus moderate thing but there's also this conversation about your style and the way you and the way you want to to govern and the way you want to wield power and I think that's important I like to look at what Montana just had their legislative session where they passed a suite of legislation you know I don't know if y'all saw the photo of the governor with all the kids because he signed a bill that created universal free lunch for all students and that's they you know what I mean like they signed they signed legislation that protects workers and protects you they signed there's so much good legislation that was passed and that's not a legislature full of progressives you know it's people who came together and they use their power to govern quickly and that gives me a lot of hope so you know it's interesting but I think a lot of it has to do with the relationships that you build and being able to yes hash it out and work it out with people but not at the expense of your values and what you believe in and you know who's to say one person knows what the line is I'm not sure there is a line in the sand on that I think it's always moving on different issues and depending on who you are and everything but I think creating the relationships with people and understanding the root of people's concerns and how they got to what they believe you know that doesn't change or can change what you believe but a lot of times it reaffirms what you believe and then it puts you in a better position to advocate for that because it is true like this process it's a slow process like to get you know speaking with other members who've been here for a while they always say yeah if you have a bill you want to pass you know introduce it now even though it might not pass because we're in the minority because there's a cycle of introducing legislation a few times before sometimes it even even makes it to the floor it even makes it to this or makes it to that so it is a long process but again as you look into it you realize that also doesn't have to be and that's when you talk about you get dealt your cards when you become a member you have your colleagues and then you have elections and that's where you can change the cards so either way I want to open this up to the audience for questions we have a microphone there and a microphone there two things number one use the mic number two make sure there's a question in your question or I'm gonna stop you that was a very speedy maneuver so I'm gonna start with you sir thank you give me your name if you will and your question we're gonna try to we're gonna try to get as many we're gonna try to get as many questions in as possible so we'll do it nice and tight and nice tight answers and get everybody in come on we got an entire microphone over here don't be shy go ahead sir hi congressman frost thank you so much for being here my name is david seaton I'm from Massachusetts and after hearing an interview with you last year after you won the primary election I was inspired to start a campaign in Massachusetts and write a piece of legislation called the empower act and your question is lower the voting age and this was unsuccessful in my town I'm wondering how you stay hopeful in the face of adversity yeah that's a good question because I've worked in gun violence the last 10 years and I think gun violence prevention is one of the slowest moving issues in government I'm for many reasons and we're gonna specifically but last year the bipartisan safer communities act was passed is the first piece of gun violence prevention legislation passed in 30 years and so and in gun violence it's work that is trauma filled and you know I was talking about the fact that I've been over 60 vigils since I was 15 years old of people who have been needlessly killed due to gun violence so part of it is the people around me and the organizers I've met and like grounding myself in the stories and I think another part of it is I'm like very invested in learning about the history of social movement and that gives me a lot of hope too because you realize that you know if your timeline for change is like a two-year term you are probably gonna be very disappointed because things take a little longer than that and so if you look at this as we're part of this grand mosaic of humanity and there's a consistent timeline that doesn't end doesn't start with your life and it doesn't end with your life you know and when you see it that way and you see how you know what the work that we're doing right now directly connects to our ancestors and elders who have made it possible for like me to sit here today and think about the future people in the country that we can build that just gives me a lot of hope and makes me very excited I know it's kind of like meta but like it's but it makes me like very excited to like think about my place in that and the fact that like I'm a small piece of a bigger puzzle but I can still impact and create a lot of change and just because the bill that you know that you wanted to pass it and get passed the first line doesn't mean that fight is over in fact the fight is over if you decide to throw the towel and give up on it and a lot of times you know it'll take a few tries to get to get something through again it doesn't always have to be that way but just because it is that way doesn't mean you fail it just this is a timeline you know you're in one place of your timeline you'll continue through it and that's really what gives me hope is seeing my place in this bigger struggle doesn't put so much pressure on you where you feel like oh if I don't do this one thing right now I suck you know what I mean that's not that's not the case at all and so that's really what gives me a lot of hope that's a great question thank you let's go right over here go ahead thank you so my question is you deal with a lot of like emotional topics gun violence right and how do you not get frustrated or even angry when you're working with the other side and it seems like common sense legislation how do you keep your cool in those type of situations well I don't not get angry or frustrated I get very angry and angry and frustrated I'm human right like I get mad I get frustrated there's times where I have to take a beat and like take time to myself and so two things part of it is like self-preservation and this work is so important and self-preservation self-care it's a few things it's about taking time away but it's also about finding the ways incorporate the things that you love in the work itself and I think that gives you a bit more longevity into it like so if you look at the work that we do I'm always incorporating like the arts and music into like almost everything and it gives me like a little bit more like longevity in the work because it's difficult the other thing I'll say though is I mean when it comes comes down to gun violence you're I mean the solutions actually are very bipartisan across the country you know you look at something like universal background checks the majority of Republicans are actually for that and the majority of NRA members are for it too so you're like why isn't it law and there's a lot of other forces at hand and other things that we don't have time to get into right now but I think learning about that helps me understand how we're going to pass legislation in the future and it doesn't make me any less frustrated but it gives me a little bit more hope in how we're going to move forward and also I'm very active outside of my official office as well like my campaign side we have a year-round organizing program that we launched we had over 200 volunteers come out we knocked doors we're talking with voters we hired 10 organizing fellows that are starting for the summer we're paying them so it's equitable and we're really trying to build also outside of the halls of power to impact the cards that were dealt and so because of that I have many different avenues you know what I mean that I'm thinking through if all I was doing was just in the halls of Congress I feel that's very constricting and limited and I feel like we're in a moment in time right now where it requires more of our elected officials than just to do the job like it's been done before and so I'm very very involved in helping other people helping other candidates we knocked door we're knocking doors right now I don't have my I'm not on the ballot till August of next year for a primary and we're not knocking doors and saying hey vote for Maxwell Frost we're knocking doors and we're helping people where hurricane preparedness right now we're knocking doors and we're getting people to sign petitions for a ballot initiative and so we're creating that trust with our community so when it comes time to vote I don't have to convince anyone to vote I just need to remind them it's time to vote and so either way what I'm trying to say is when you give yourself multiple avenues to do the work I think that helps also alleviate some of the frustration if you hit a road block in one space you have many that you're working in thank you over here hello my name is Evendor I'm 17 I'm from Buffalo New York so I just want to say that we live in an age where many observers say that some politicians are bought and traded like common commodities so I want to ask you about what you see the violence forgive me I don't know if you caught that could you just repeat that I didn't hear what you said yeah we live in an age when many observers would say that some politicians are bought and traded like common commodities gotcha I want to ask you about the viability of future campaign finance reform and then secondly if you feel as though your views or ability to represent your constituents has been hindered by the realities of campaign finance yeah I very much believe in the campaign violence reform in many different ways number one the ability for dark money and I was just let me give you an example I was just in Japan for a codel and I was speaking with other elected officials of the Japanese national diet we're actually with the South Korean National Assembly this is their congress and we're talking about elections and they get reimbursed for a lot of their things and stuff like that and we were talking I was talking about super PACS and the fact that like anyone can pretty much spend unlimited money in a campaign corporation can spend unlimited money in a campaign and I literally took me 30 minutes to explain the concept to them because it's not a thing there they were like wait a company a person can spend unlimited money in a campaign like it didn't make sense and I think we do we're in desperate new campaign finance reform but it's part of the reason we don't have gun reform in this country that has bipartisan support with the people but not in congress right we also need to make we talk about voter suppression is a real thing but candidate suppression is also a real thing when I ran for office I didn't have any money right like I quit my job I ran out of money three months and I was houseless for two months I Ubered at night to pay my bills and I ran up my two credit cards to the max limit to pay for like like food and my rent and stuff and so if I didn't win I'd be screwed right now and I happened to win right and so you shouldn't have to win to raise your hand and say I want to run for office and not put yourself in financial ruin and so I think we you know we do need a word to get dark money out of politics we also need a word to have publicly finance elections and I think that really helps our democracy so anyone here can raise their hand and say I want to serve my community and have a shot at actually winning now the prospects of it passing I think this is something that's going to get better with time because newer members of congress who are coming in and when I say new I don't just mean young I just mean newer people who are newer to the institution are generally more open to aggressive campaign finance reform on both sides of the aisle Democrats and Republicans and so that gives me a lot of hope that as we continue the composition of Congress continues to change that hopefully over time the prospects of campaign finance reform will will will be better do you feel as though within the democratic party itself the reality of getting funding from the DNC is influenced reviews by the way that was three questions but so you get a short answer future politician exactly exactly from the I'll take a step back and I'll just say like institution like DNC or D triple C or anything like that the first thing is your first hurdle is a primary and a lot of times these institutions don't get involved in the primaries right they get they like save a lot of their money for the general however there's like the institution in the label itself and then there's the people funders and apparatus behind it that can in a primary but it's not the official label so it's hard to like track it and that's part of the reason why I had a heart really hard time raising money at first and I had to figure out ways to kind of get around that and create my own magic and it does provide a barrier to entry for people but the other truth that we also hold is the fact that you know something like the D triple C like its goal is to keep the majority and so it will protect incumbents and it will work when we have an opportunity to get more democratic seats to get those seats and like that's the mission and when you get here in your new minority you realize damn we do need someone just thinking about that and raising money for that because I want to be the majority so I can legislate like for my people and my constituents and bring back things but at the same token the other side of it is sometimes it creates a situation where it's difficult for folks to challenge or get in the system and be new but I think campaign finance reform both on the candidate side and the way people can spend their money in our campaigns I think will have you know good impact on everything thank you for the question yeah thank you hey thank you I'll try to get shorter answers okay we're about to move into the speed round okay okay okay I'll be fast to try too uh hello my name is Marcus Sinisteros I'm from Arizona I just want to seat on my local school board and I ran for the office you're rad thank you thank you I ran while I was a senior in high school and I became the youngest person ever elected public office in the state of Arizona so my question is as a fellow Gen Z elected official elected officials what is your advice for fellow Gen Z elected officials well it's been a month out here I would say I would just say give yourself grace you know I think like we get into these institutions and there's a lot you know like when I was first elected every interview I did would be like how does it feel to represent Gen Z in Congress and it's like well first like I don't represent the whole generation not everyone thinks like me I would never say that I'm one of many but we all represent Gen Z and when I say we all don't even just mean politicians I mean artists I mean teachers clergy everybody we're all part of representing what'll define when people think about our generation hundreds of years from now it's all of us and I think that pressure though a lot of the time you probably have a lot of pressure on you are you the only person who's like you know under the age 40 yeah okay yeah so you're the only person who's like been in that school system within the last like you know 20 or 30 years or so so you probably have a lot of pressure on you from people that make immediate change and I think but we know that in institutions it's difficult to make immediate change especially as one person I saw this especially in 2018 when you know you look at someone like there was a wave of younger people in the congress you think about someone like AOC right and there was like a lot of pressure like oh she's gonna completely change Congress in like two years and like that's number one I don't think it's fair to put that kind of pressure on one person especially you know you think about women of color people of color young people coming into this institution that's been around for so long and you have to learn about it and figure it out I don't think it's fair to put that on people but also I feel like as elected sometimes we put it on ourselves and like I think giving yourself grace is very important and like being able to have longevity in this work and saying like look you know I might not get the campaign finance reform that I want in these two years but damn it I'm gonna get that passport office in Orlando you know what I mean and that's a big win I know most people might be like doesn't that be I'm like no you understand that's a huge win and I'm gonna you know I want to do that and so either way I think that grace is really important thank you we are running out of time so we're gonna do the super duper lightning round and I think we have time for two questions let's do that we're right over here are you guys fine with that are you gonna two more questions does that work for you? super fast super tight go right here sure hi my name is Scott and my question is how do you think the education system should be interacting with civics and are you happy with how that system is currently working great questions lightning round and these questions are I know in less than five words could you answer that question yeah so no right I mean look no there's a lot of problems right now number one public education severely underfunded in this country and at the same time as that there are attacks on public education too and not again not to get too partisan but like we just had these hearings actually the national archives were at the hearing too and the the title of the hearing was like what was it it was like back oh but what was it backlogs and then some snarky thing like you know waiting on the phone for a merit or something like that and the people who called the hearing they were saying that like you know right now waiting times are very long for a lot of agencies right it takes a long time to get a passport you know if you're contacting you know the IRS or whatever you might be waiting a long time to hear back and these are the same people who also just like voted and have been advocating to gut the same agencies of staff and so it like brings up the quest it's the same thing public education you know people have been advocating to you know take money for public education put into vouchers into private schools and severely underfunded public education and then at the same time we'll call hearings and say oh you know school grades are not doing well teacher retention isn't good when teacher pay is horrible in this country and so I think like you know that hypocrisy I like to call it out because I think it's important to know that if we want programs to be successful we have to fund them and we have to fund them adequately and I think the budget really shows where your priorities are and you know we're a country where we don't prioritize public education enough are there a problem like we do need standards a hundred percent we do need to unsure that we're holding a high bar for public education because those are taxpayer dollars but we also can't you know expect to go to the moon and be given like you know a fiat so either way not no no like shade towards fiat but I'm I should have used something different okay tiny car our final question this evening hi there hi I'm Penelope I'm from Sacramento, California 16 years old with six suffix unplugged here first off it's just so incredibly inspiring to see you guys here as a young Latina it makes me feel like one day I can drive change like you too my question is I know how you stand on the embargo representative frost but what actions can we take and what actions can the United States Congress take lightning round and be asked about Cuba I know I know public education in Cuba in five words or less no no yeah yeah thank you for the question you know it's very interesting because I am a progressive and I I always joke that I feel like I am one of the few moderates on the issue of Cuba because I feel like you know there's certain issues where the discourse really does you know there's like this thing called calling the ref right where like the discourse on and the kind of over 10 window which is the kind of parameters of acceptable debate kind of shift in one place and I feel like when it comes down to Cuba especially my own state I feel like most people and a lot of Cubans are very much more right-wing on on this which would mean like no engagement at all and if you want to engage you love Fidel Castro and you hate Cubans my mom came my mom fled Cuba she came here as a refugee in the late 1960s and and I want to pause and then you have a lot of people on the left too who will like praise Fidel and say everything's okay and like you know it's like everyone's just running around and everyone has money and everyone has everything and that's not the case and I know this from personal experience like with my family and so I live actually somewhere in the middle which I usually don't say on many issues where it's like there's multiple truths here the situation is really bad you know we we there is a government that is exploiting the people but at the same time our policy that we've had the same policy forever and we talk about the embargo and and and having no relations you know when when you put those type of sanctions and like an embargo in a country of authoritarian leaders who don't care about the people and are taking all the money they can weather the storm and put the burden on the working people of the country and that's exactly what's going on the situation in Cuba is that we didn't create the situation and I'm not saying if we lift the embargo tomorrow that everyone's going to be everyone's going to have everything they need and Cuba's going to be okay but um there but I do believe that if something's not working after decades and decades I think it's time to to look at other things and I think it's okay to say that and I believe both for those things are true so I don't have all the answers but the problem is you know in the state of Florida sometimes you bring up the conversation and people will shut you down immediately and I think I'm in a unique position being Cuban and having having family in Cuba where it's hard for people to shut me down on it and I'm still figuring out my way in the on the conversation of Cuba but I you know for me when I talk about norm like having more relations it's less about the government more about I just want like Cubans to be okay and specifically the most vulnerable people and for me this work is about seeing the eyes seeing through the eyes of the most vulnerable people and so there's like my kind of quick answer on Cuba thank you and thank you for this interview we appreciate it thank you thank you all the questions thank you to the audience it's been a real pleasure to have you at the National Archives thank you thank you so much for that thank you