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Maxwell Alejandro Frost on his struggles finding a flat in DC: "This isn't for people who don't already have money"
Photo: Stephen M. Dowell / dpa
When the new US Congress meets after the midterm elections in early January, some left-wing Democrats will be among the newcomers alongside the ultra-right MAGA Republicans.
One of them is 25-year-old Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who will represent his Florida constituency in the House of Representatives.
So far, the young politician in Washington DC has been plagued by one thing in particular – looking for an apartment.
In addition to residing in their home district, MPs also need a place to stay in the US capital.
This requires money, money that young, left-wing election winners from working-class families, like Frost, often don't have.
In his constituency in Orlando, he lives in a three-person flat share and the first diet payment does not come until the end of January.
All in all, members of parliament in the USA receive an annual salary of 174,000 dollars (around 162,600 euros).
Frost says, "I'll probably sleep on someone's couch in DC for at least the first month."
When Frost couldn't get an apartment in the capital because of his poor credit rating, he complained on Twitter: "This is not for people who don't already have money." Indeed, the average wealth of US lawmakers in 2019 was just over one million dollars and the average age of members of the Senate in 2021 at just under 64 years, that of members of the House of Representatives at 58 years.
The prominent left-wing Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 33, also reported problems with finding an apartment in an interview with the “New York Times” before taking office in 2019.
Beginning in January, Frost plans to campaign in Congress in particular for the issue of firearms regulation.
Before running for the House of Representatives, he was an activist on the cause and traveled across the United States with survivors of the 2018 Parkland gun shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida.
He also hired himself out as an Uber driver.
After his election victory, he received messages in which people described the young left-wing politician with Afro-Cuban roots as their savior.
"But no.
There isn't a single politician who will save us," Frost said.
“We shouldn't think like that.
It's a movement.
I am a small piece of a very large puzzle."
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