ATLANTA — This campaign season has seen a new generation running for seats in the Georgia legislature.
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Ashwin Ramaswami has recently been delivering a lot of speeches.
“I tell folks that people who are Gen Z are going to outlive most other people in the room,” Ramaswami told Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen.
The 25-year-old is one of them.
Now, old enough to run for the Georgia State Senate, challenging incumbent Shawn Still. It’s part of this political season’s youth movement.
There are five Generation Z candidates—born from 1997 to 2012—running for seats in the Georgia legislature. That’s why some are invoking the words proclaimed by President John F. Kennedy before their parents were even born.
“The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans,” President Kennedy said during his inaugural address in 1961.
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“Has the torch been passed,” Berndt Petersen asked.
“No,” Alicia Hughes said.
Hughes is with the Emory University School of Law. She says Gen Z, sometimes known as Zoomers, has ‘taken’ the torch.
“Leaders don’t wait for someone to Christen them as leaders. Leaders are born,” Hughes said.
They are the youngest generation of American adults, with 70 million of them in the world. A 2024 survey found that 20% would consider running for office.
“You don’t ask for permission to do it. I say no guts, no glory,” Hughes said.
Ramaswami is encouraging his generation to go for it.
“For people like me, it’s not about the next two, three, or four years. It’s about the next three, four, five decades,” the candidate said.
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