In our limited series “How I’ll Get It Done,” rising progressive stars tell the Cut how they plan to fight for a better future.
Representative Maxwell Frost is going into Donald Trump’s second term with eyes wide open. Unlike when he entered Congress as its first-ever Gen-Z member in 2023, Frost will be working in a Washington controlled by Trump and his cronies, where pledges to deport millions of immigrants and dismantle the Department of Education have a path to becoming reality. Those threats are part of what prompted the 27-year-old to join Democratic House leadership this year. “We don’t have the presidency or the Senate,” he says. To Frost, the narrowly divided House is ground zero for combatting Trumpism: “We are the primary messengers.”
As the newly installed co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, Frost, who once guided March for Our Lives’ organizing arm, will shape House Democrats’ political messaging, a role that will be crucial to defining the party’s vision and shoring up support for the 2026 midterms. Pulling this off would be a tall order for any second-term representative, but Frost already has some impressive victories under his belt. When his bill to create the first-ever federal office to combat gun-violence prevention stalled in a Republican-controlled House, he took the proposal to the Biden administration, and it became the framework for the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Frost also picked up lessons from local fights in Orlando, where he recently won his constituents a long-overdue passport agency by leveraging his relationships on the House Oversight Committee and the State Department. Obstructionist politics are often the name of the game, he says, so the question is, “How can we get shit done anyway?” Below, Frost discusses where Democrats are failing to meet the moment, the unmet needs he heard voters voice during the election, and how music can drive political change.
Talk to me about your new role as co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC). What made you decide to run and what are you hoping to achieve?
To be honest, it wasn’t top of mind. But my colleagues encouraged me to run because we got our asses kicked last November. We lost working-class people, people of color, young people, Latinos. And it makes sense: Donald Trump did a good job of making this election a referendum on the economy and the way people feel about their lives. President Biden and Vice-President Harris did a good job of getting us back to where we were before COVID, but along the way, people forgot that things weren’t so good then, either. Pre-pandemic, we had massive wealth inequality and people dying because they didn’t have money for health care. People don’t want to go back to that time. They want transformational change. It’s my job to further that mission by providing rapid-response messaging to the House Caucus and helping us hone our message.
You traveled the country last fall to stump for Vice-President Kamala Harris. What did you hear from voters?
The main priority was the housing crisis. I heard this from voters of all ages. This is an issue where we haven’t seen good leadership from either party. Vice-President Harris was the first presidential candidate to lead with housing solutions, but this is a national crisis with no end in sight. And this is personal for me. I was priced out of my apartment while running for Congress. And when I got elected, I couldn’t find a place to live because my credit score was so bad. Why? Because when I was running for office, I was living off credit cards. We need to make sure voters understand that we get what they are going through. But we also have to show that we are willing to shake things up to ensure they have a roof over their heads.
How did you experience Election Night?
I spent half my time at an election party here in Orlando, and then I went home. I’m a bit of a nerd. I had an Excel sheet with House races and local races around the country, and I wanted to be able to watch the returns come in. The night didn’t start out good in Florida because we quickly realized we weren’t going to pass the threshold necessary to codify abortion rights or legalize recreational use of marijuana through ballot initiatives. It’s harder in Florida because you have to get 60 percent of the vote, or more than a majority. Not to mention Ron DeSantis used state money to campaign against both of those referendums, which I believe is criminal.
But once North Carolina came in, I knew it wasn’t going to be a good night. Of all the states I went to, the best vibes were in that state. Every event I did was packed and standing-room only. When we lost it, that’s when I decided to go home to my Excel sheet. Before I left, a supporter of mine, an older lady, came up to me crying. Nothing had been called yet. She was nervous and asked if we were going to win. I looked her in the eyes and said, “Don’t worry. We’re going to win.” I think about that moment a lot, because we didn’t.
That sounds so rough. Are there lessons you’ve walked away with since that night? You represent a heavily Latino district that traditionally swings Democrat. Do you think Democrats took Latino voters for granted?
Democrats have taken Latino voters for granted for a long time. We like to pigeonhole communities with certain issues. For Latinos, it’s immigration. For Black voters, it’s voting rights and criminal justice reform. But the top priority for these voters is how they are doing in the economy. People care about how they are going to pay their rent and health care. That doesn’t mean we don’t talk about other issues, but we have underestimated how wealth inequality hurts everyone.
We’ve got to contend with some hard truths because Donald Trump built a multiracial, working-class movement to win the presidency. We have to start saying the quiet part out loud. For example, we are probably going to do well in the midterms; I suspect we’ll take the House back. Why? Because less people are going to vote, and people who will vote will be more affluent. That’s never been the case for Democrats before. We’ve always been the party that wins when more people vote. We’ve got to contend with that so we can figure out the best path forward to the next presidency, and leaning into economic issues that impact everyone is a great place to start.
One of the obstacles to winning the presidency last fall was the ongoing generational battle among Democratic leadership. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s failed bid to lead the House Oversight Committee feels like a good example of that. You supported AOC’s bid. Why? Do you see a generational struggle happening among House Democrats?
There’s always a bit of struggle when power moves around, but the story is more complicated behind closed doors. When I first got to Congress, I thought I’d be a part of this huge ideological battle of progressives versus moderates in the Democratic Party. But when I got there, I realized that coalitions get built around different things. One is generational, but there’s also newer folks and older folks — not from an age perspective, but people who are newer to the institution fighting for changes that people who have been in it for longer are hesitant to change. Another is populism: Pat Ryan supported AOC and he’s a moderate Democrat, but they share that commitment to populist policies.
The House is a place where relationships matter, and seniority helps you build those relationships. I helped whip for Alexandria, and most of the people I spoke to said, “I’m voting for Gerry Connolly because I’ve known him for a long time, but I believe Alexandria would be great in the position at another time.” In the end, it wasn’t a complete rebuke of our generation or progressive policy, it was just how the cards laid out. The amount of votes she got was impressive given how baked seniority is in our party.
Shifting gears slightly, what are some of your top priorities in the first month of Trump’s administration?
I’m concerned about mass deportation. I live in a community full of undocumented immigrants. My mom came in as a refugee from Cuba, so this is personal for me. And I’m going to stand ten toes down. People are getting the wrong message from this election. If you look at the numbers, yes, people are concerned with the border and immigration, but most people do not agree with what Donald Trump is proposing. Even people who voted for him. I am not going to allow myself to be pulled in that direction, and House Democrats shouldn’t either. Standing up for LGBTQ rights and trans people is another top priority. That’s another area where Democrats are getting the wrong message. Trump’s anti-trans ads during the election weren’t even about trans people; they were about the economy and resources being used for someone else and not you. That’s the crux of this anti-trans, anti-immigrant messaging: It’s a fascist playbook. Pick a minority group, blame everything on them, and then tell people to give me the power to fix it. Ron DeSantis does it in Florida too. The answer is not to capitulate, but to tell the truth and fight like hell.
How does it feel to watch your colleagues in the House and Senate throw in their lot with Trump on immigration issues?
We never got our messaging or policies together on immigration, so we left the void open and Republicans have successfully exploited that. But we have moved the needle on hard issues before. We did it on abortion and guns. We provided solutions and messaging to talk about them. Fast-forward to now, and we’ve flipped the math. We have moderate Republicans tripping over themselves trying to defend their party because it’s linked to gun violence, and they know many of their constituents don’t subscribe to it. Unfortunately, we’re at that point with immigration. The DPCC has a role to play to help members communicate effectively, but we need to get our act together on this issue.
Ending on a lighter note, I know you’re a music guy. You went to arts school, and your dad is a musician. Is there music you turn to during challenging times?
Absolutely. I’m listening to Magdalena Bay right now. They just released an album called Imaginal Disk. I saw them live last year. I’m listening to Smino, Stevie Wonder, Beach Boys. But the arts also have a practical role to play in bridging the gap between cool and consciousness. I host a music festival here in Orlando that I run out of my campaign called Mad Soul. The purpose is to combine music and politics. The music brings people in, but instead of traditional vendors, we have organizations that help people plug in politically at the local level. Last year, we had 3,500 people come out. Muna was the headliner, but we also had Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Greg Casar, and Lin-Manuel Miranda speaking. Culture often transcends politics, and when those lines blur, when someone can’t even tell you why they came out to your event, that’s real power.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.