Gen Z candidates in both parties put housing costs at the center of their races

Gen Z candidates in both parties are making housing affordability the centerpiece of their state legislative campaigns this midterms season. Democrats Olaleye Onikuyide and Eli Sabin in Connecticut and Republican Lukas Schubert in Montana each say their generation has the most at stake in the debate.

Housing costs have become a top issue for voters nationwide as a chronic shortage pushes up rents and home prices, and the fallout cuts across generations. Younger people are renting with roommates into their 30s and struggling to save for a down payment. Empty nesters looking to downsize can't find an affordable place to go, and longtime homeowners are reluctant to move at all given today's high mortgage rates.

Connecticut: running as renters

Onikuyide, 28, is running for state representative in Connecticut and lives with his parents, which he says is by choice to save money. He wants more mixed-income housing and walkable cities, and he acknowledges that adding density to urban areas can be controversial, with longtime residents worried about traffic or strained infrastructure.

About an hour away in New Haven, 26-year-old Eli Sabin is also running as a Democrat for state representative. He began serving on the Board of Alders, the city council, as a college sophomore, and helped change zoning rules to allow denser development and more affordable units. Sabin is a renter, like about 70% of residents in the city, and notes that elected officials at all levels in the U.S. are overwhelmingly homeowners. His lease is up in May and he does not know whether the rent will rise or whether his landlord will let him stay.

He would like more protections against eviction and wants to make it easier to buy a home. Sabin won a three-way primary, beating both a democratic socialist and a longtime incumbent first elected more than a decade before he was born. He credited New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani with igniting political energy around the everyday cost of living, and pointed to Republican-led states such as Texas and Montana as role models for bipartisan housing legislation.

Montana: starter homes

In Kalispell, Montana, 21-year-old Republican Lukas Schubert is campaigning for reelection as a state representative. The state allows people to run for office at age 18. Housing sits at the top of the issues page on his campaign website, alongside Christianity and taxes.

"It is a top priority among Republicans as well," he said. "It's not just, you know, a Democrat issue."

Home prices in Montana jumped sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic as more people moved there. Gen Z and millennial lawmakers were part of a push to overhaul zoning and red tape, and a 2023 package of laws dubbed the "Montana Miracle" aims to make it easier and cheaper to build housing.

Schubert would like to rein in large foreign corporations that buy up homes and noncitizens who own large parcels of land and property without living in the state. He sees a gap in the market: new development is mostly apartment buildings or multi-million-dollar mansions. His main focus is starter homes, either single family or duplexes. Last session he proposed a major tax break for developers who sell a newly built starter home for less than 85% of the local median value. It did not pass, but he plans to try again.

Source: NPR News.