Gen Z is in the House: Following election, Oregon’s Legislature gets younger

In January Gen Zers and millennials will make up a quarter of Oregon’s 60 House representatives. Like many members of Generation Z, Representative-elect Hank Sanders, a Democrat living in Hood River, recently turned 26 and aged out of his family’s health insurance plan. “That’s my weekend plan,” he said in a phone interview. “Nobody punch me. Nobody hurt me for the next couple weeks while I figure out my healthcare.” The former journalist and legislative aide to his mother, state Sen. Lisa Reynolds, a Portland area Democrat, was elected to represent Oregon’s 52nd House District a week after his 26th birthday. He’s one of a couple 20 year olds who ran for the first time for state political office in the November election, and who will, after being sworn in at the beginning of January, be among the youngest lawmakers in Oregon’s Legislature, where the average age is closer to 55.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.