Maxwell Frost | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2023 | |
| Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2025 Serving with Lori Trahan andLauren Underwood | |
| Leader | Hakeem Jeffries |
| Preceded by | Veronica Escobar |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromFlorida's10th district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Val Demings |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Maxwell Alejandro Frost (1997-01-17)January 17, 1997 (age 28) Orlando, Florida, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | Valencia College (attended) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | House website Campaign website |
Maxwell Alejandro Frost (born January 17, 1997)[1] is an American politician and activist serving as theU.S. representative forFlorida's 10th congressional district since 2023. A member of theDemocratic Party, he was previously the national organizing director forMarch for Our Lives. Elected at age 25,[2] Frost is the youngest member and the firstGeneration Z member of theUnited States Congress.
Frost was born on January 17, 1997, to a Puerto Rican mother of Lebanese descent and a Haitian father.[3][4] His biological mother had several children.[5] He was adopted from birth; his adoptive mother is aspecial education teacher who migrated to the United States from Cuba in theFreedom Flights, and his adoptive father is a musician from Kansas.[6] He reconnected with his birth mother in June 2021.[6][7]
Frost attendedOsceola County School for the Arts inKissimmee, Florida.[8] In high school, he was part of theTechnology Student Association. He attendedValencia College, but did not graduate.[6][9] For nearly a decade, Frost participated in thecadet program of theCivil Air Patrol, attaining the rank ofcadet major.[10]
Frost has been organizing since around 2012, when he was active withBarack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign.[11][8] He also volunteered with theNewtown Action Alliance, an organization created in response to theSandy Hook Elementary School shooting.[6] He has identifiedOccupy Wall Street, theColumbine High School massacre, thekilling of Trayvon Martin, and theOrlando nightclub shooting as events that affected his thinking.[12] He later volunteered forBernie Sanders,Hillary Clinton, andMargaret Good.[7]
Frost survived an incident ofgun violence at aHalloween event inDowntown Orlando in 2016.[6][13]
Frost was an organizer with theAmerican Civil Liberties Union and worked to supportFlorida's 2018 Amendment 4 and to pressureJoe Biden to stop supporting theHyde Amendment in 2019.[6] He was the national organizing director forMarch for Our Lives.[6][14] In November 2021, Frost was arrested at avoting rights rally inLafayette Square led byWilliam Barber II andBen Jealous.[15]
In August 2021, Frost announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination forFlorida's 10th congressional district.[16] During the primary campaign, he released a television ad inSpanglish, tellingThe Hill, "Latinos are in a place where their first language is Spanish but they speak English as well, and quite frankly that's me ... We speak Spanglish in the house, and I know that's the same for a lot of Latino families in the district."[17]
Frost beatstate senatorRandolph Bracy and formerU.S. representativesAlan Grayson andCorrine Brown, among others, in the August 23, 2022, primary.[18] Due to the district's Democratic tilt, Frost was expected to win the general election in November 2022,[19] which he did, defeating Republican Calvin Wimbish by a 19% margin, which was smaller than the 32% margin by whichBiden won the district in 2020.[20] Frost is the youngest member of Congress. He was endorsed by numerous national and local political figures, includingJesse Jackson, formerNAACP presidentBen Jealous, civil-rights activistDolores Huerta, and U.S. senatorsBernie Sanders andElizabeth Warren.[21]
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Frost supports aGreen New Deal.[6] He has identifiedenvironmental justice as a priority of his campaign.[4][7]
Frost is a strong advocate forgun control.[4][7]
In January 2023, Frost and RepresentativeJared Moskowitz sent House speakerKevin McCarthy a letter asking him to convene a classified meeting to address mass shootings. The letter called for theFBI and other law enforcement agencies to conduct the meeting.[27]
Frost supportssingle-payer healthcare and investing inpandemic prevention.[4][6][7] He introduced with RepresentativeDoris Matsui in 2024 the EPIPEN Act, which seeks to cap out-of-pocket costs forepinephrine autoinjectors used for severe allergic reactions at $60 per two-pack for individuals with health insurance.[28]
Frost wants to "build toward a future without prison".[6] He supports thedecriminalization of sex work and thedecriminalization of cannabis use.[7][29]
Frost is a proponent ofaffordable housing. He supportedKamala Harris's plan to build 3 million new housing units in her first term and believed that increasing housing affordability and accessibility should be a policy priority in a Harris administration.[30][needs update] He was endorsed by the Florida chapter of YIMBY Action,[31] aYIMBY group.
Frost co-sponsored the End Junk Fees for Renters Act in 2023, which aims to eliminate extra fees imposed by landlords, ban application fees, and increase transparency inrental agreements.[32]
Frost believes that the 2015Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) "certainly fell short in ways, but it blocked Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon, which was an important success".[33] In 2022, he supported restoration of the JCPOA but stressed "we must make it longer, stronger, and broader to cover not just the issue of nuclear weapons, but also the full range of destabilizing and threatening actions Iran engages in, like Iran's ballistic missile program and the country's support for terrorist proxies likeHezbollah andHamas."[33]
Frost supports atwo-state solution to theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict and has indicated his intent to travel to Israel to promote "US leadership in bringing peace to a region that so desperately needs and deserves it".[34][35] He has called himself pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian.[34][35][36] In 2022, he supported unconditionalU.S. military aid to Israel.[34][35][37] He has criticized thePalestinian Authority'smartyr's fund that compensates the families of dead and wounded militants, likening it to a recruitment tactic ofHamas for the purpose of committingpolitically motivated violence against Israel.[34][37] Frost opposes theBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and accuses it of harboring leadership fromterrorist organizations.[34][35][37]
Frost had formerly participated in pro-Palestine activism, signing pledges with the Florida Palestine Network (FPN) and the Palestinian Feminist Pledge, calling for support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, ending military aid to Israel, and rejecting the conflation ofanti-Zionism with antisemitism.[38] In early August 2022, the Jewish news websiteJewish Insider published a candidate questionnaire from Frost's congressional campaign that showed a shift in Frost's foreign policy positions on Israel and Palestine.[37]Jewish Insider characterized his responses as a reversal that distanced himself from his past while declaring an aggressive stance against the BDS movement, calling for unconditional military aid to Israel, and stating his opposition to anti-Zionism.[35] His campaign later released aposition paper that formalized these positions.[34][37]
Following theGaza war, Frost has shown a shift in his views on Israel-Palestine. While Frost voted to provide Israel with initial support following theOctober 7 attacks,[39][40] as of April 2024 he has voted against providing Israel with further aid, has accused Israel of violating international law during the war, and has stated that "thebombing campaign in Gaza must stop".[41][42]
During his campaign, Frost announced a "crypto-advisory council" that would advise him during his campaign.[43] He received $8,700 in contributions from crypto entrepreneurSam Bankman-Fried and Sam's brother Gabriel and nearly $1 million in help from the Super-PACProtect Our Future, almost all of it after announcing the council.[44]
Frost is opposed to building asouthern border wall.[45] During a January 2024House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing on immigration, Frost proposed removing theStatue of Liberty in response to the Republican bill H.R. 2, "Secure the Border Act".[46][47] In March 2025, after formerColumbia University studentMahmoud Khalil was detained byImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and his legal status was revoked, Frost remarked that his arrest should "scare everyone."[48] In April 2025, Frost traveled toEl Salvador with three other members of Congress to advocate for the release ofKilmar Abrego Garcia and others who had beendeported withoutdue process by theTrump administration.[49][50]
Frost can speak both English and Spanish.[17] He is ajazz drummer and plays thetimbales.[8][14] His nine-member high school band Seguro Que Sí (from Spanish 'of course') performed in the parade duringPresident Obama's second inauguration in 2013.[8][51] He also enjoys thetrading card gameYu-Gi-Oh!, having played the game since his younger years.[52]
In December 2022, Frost said he was denied a rental apartment in Washington, D.C., due to a "really bad"credit history. He said his credit rating was bad because he "ran up a lot of debt running for Congress for a year and a half".[54]
Frost was among a handful of Democrats who received about $1 million in support from former billionaire and felonSam Bankman-Fried's Protect Our Future PAC, as well as the maximum individual donation of $2,900.[55] In December 2022, the U.S. government indicted Bankman-Fried after alleging that he gave investor money to progressive political candidates, among other fraudulent crimes.[56] After the announcement of charges against Bankman-Fried, Frost donated the individual donation to the Zebra Coalition, anLGBTQ charity.[57]
| Year | Office | Party | Primary | General | Result | Swing | Ref. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | P. | Total | % | P. | ||||||||
| 2022 | U.S. House | Democratic | 19,288 | 34.77% | 1st | 117,955 | 59.00% | 1st | Won | Hold | [58] | ||
| 2024 | 33,208 | 81.77% | 1st | 181,455 | 62.37% | 1st | Won | Hold | [59] | ||||
| Source:Secretary of State of Florida |Election Results | |||||||||||||
Frost has roots in a broad swath of American life: His parents, who adopted Frost at birth, are a Cuban American woman and a white man from Kansas. His birth parents were a Lebanese Puerto Rican woman and a Haitian man.
43. Diamant, Jeff (January 3, 2023)“Faith on The Hill”Pew Research Center. Retrieved September 7, 2023.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromFlorida's 10th congressional district 2023–present | Incumbent |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Baby of the House 2023–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | United States representatives by seniority 315th | Succeeded by |
