美国国会第一位Z世代议员（上）

This week's midterm election saw a handful of historic firsts, New York, Massachusetts and Arkansas each elected their first female governors while Massachusetts and Oregon both saw the first openly lesbian governors elected in U.S. history.

本周的中期选举出现了几个历史性的第一，纽约州、马萨诸塞州和阿肯色州都选出了他们的第一位女性州长，而马萨诸塞州和俄勒冈州都见证了美国历史上第一位公开的女同性恋州长。

And Maryland, Wes Moore became the first black Governor ever in that state.

韦斯·摩尔成为马里兰州第一位黑人州长。

And in New Hampshire, the first trans man was elected to a state legislature.

第一位跨性别者被选入新罕布什尔州立法机构。

Add to that, the first member of Generation Z ever elected to Congress won his election on Tuesday in Florida's 10th Congressional District, the winner, Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old Democrat joins us now.

此外，第一个入选国会的Z世代（亦称为互联网世代）成员周二在佛罗里达州第10国会选区赢得了选举，这位获胜者是25岁的民主党人麦克斯韦·弗罗斯特，他现在与我们连线。

Thanks for being with us.

感谢你做客我们的节目。

Of course, thank you so much for having me.

非常感谢你能邀请我。

So, what do you see as the significance of your win?

你认为你获胜的意义是什么？

The average age of a U.S. House member is 58, you were 25?

美国众议院议员的平均年龄是58岁，而你只有25岁？

What does that mean big picture?

从大局来看，这意味着什么？

Well, you know, I didn't decide to run to be the first Gen Z member of Congress, right?

嗯，我并不是为了成为第一位Z世代国会议员而决定竞选，对吗？

I decided to run to really represent my district, Central Florida.

我是为了代表我的选区--佛罗里达州中部而决定竞选。

I see problems.

我看到了问题。

We know, we are living in an increasingly divided time right now.

我们现在生活在一个日益分裂的时代。

And we have this far right movement that has been really on the rise in Florida.

在佛罗里达州，极右翼运动正在兴起。

However, we know that Gen Z, and millennials make up about a third of the country.

然而，我们知道Z世代和千禧一代约占美国人口的三分之一。

We don't represent anywhere near a third of government.

而我们并没有三分之一的政府代表。

And I think it's important that we have young people at the table.

我认为，让年轻人坐在谈判桌上是很重要的。

Look, I'm not one of these people that say we need to take out all the old folks and just have young people.

听着，我不是那种说要除掉所有老年人而只剩下年轻人的人。

It needs to be diverse, right, in age, in race, in gender, in economic status and experience.

需要多样化，对，需要在年龄、种族、性别、经济地位和经验方面多样化。

And this is just part of that bigger puzzle.

而这只是更大难题的一部分。

Well, on that point, running for office, as you well know, by now, it's a commitment, it's a sacrifice.

嗯，在这一点上，你很清楚，竞选公职，到目前为止，这是一种奉献，这是一种牺牲。

At night, you drove for Uber to make ends meet since you weren't making money as a candidate.

晚上，你会开优步车来维持生计，因为作为候选人赚不什么钱。

And that reality really rules out entire classes of people who might want to run for office, but just can't make it work, can't afford to do it.

而这一现实确实排除了整个阶层的人，他们可能想要竞选公职，但就是做不到，负担不起。

You know, what it really showcased for me is the fact that it is an inaccessible thing to run in the first place.

真正向我展示的是，这件事从一开始就行不通。

Like you mentioned, you know, I had to start driving Uber about three months into my election, to really pay for my food, pay for my bills.

就像你提到的，我不得不在我当选后的约三个月时间里，开始开优步车，来购买食物，支付账单。

But I'll tell you this, there were some pretty low points, especially for me financially during this campaign.

但我要告诉你的是，我经历过一些低谷，特别是我在这次竞选期间的财务状况。

And I would say in January or February, if I had kids and I had people were depending on me financially, I would have had to drop out of the race.

我会说，在1月或2月，如果我有了孩子，在经济上需要依赖我，我将不得不退出竞选。

And we see that happen across the country.

我们发现这种情况在全国各地都在发生。

And so, there's a lot of bold ideas out there on how we can make this more accessible.

关于如何更容易获得这个职位，有很多大胆的想法。

I think publicly funded elections are something that should be implemented.

我认为应该实施公共资助选举。

Because we have to give our candidates the ability to spend as much time with the constituents as possible, because we need more working-class families represented in the halls of Congress and across the country in local and municipal governments.

因为我们必须让我们的候选人能尽可能多地与选民相处，因为我们需要更多的工人阶级家庭代表出现在国会大厅以及全国的地方政府和市政府中。