Gen Z candidates from both parties make the high cost of housing the heart of their campaigns

For a growing group of young people on the ballot this fall, the housing crisis is not a talking point. It is their daily life. Gen Z candidates from both major parties say that living through record-high rents and home prices gives them a sharper sense of what needs fixing.

Olaleye Onikuyide, a 28-year-old Democrat running for a Connecticut House seat in West Hartford, still lives with his parents to save money and rides the bus to campaign stops. He has been fixated on housing costs for years and jokes that watching the issue go mainstream feels like seeing a little-known band suddenly sell out arenas.

He says his generation may be the best educated in history yet worse off than their parents, squeezed by rent, gas prices, student loans and a tight job market. His plan centers on more mixed-income housing and neighborhoods where people can walk to what they need. He argues the real progress happens in state capitols.

A renter in a room full of homeowners

In New Haven, 26-year-old Democrat Eli Sabin is also running for the state House. He first won a seat on the city's Board of Alders while still in college and helped change zoning rules to allow denser buildings and more affordable units.

Sabin rents, like about seven in 10 people in his city. He says that matters because most elected leaders own their homes. His lease runs out in May and he has no idea whether the rent will rise or whether he can stay. He wants stronger eviction protections and an easier path to buying a first home.

He beat a longtime incumbent and a democratic socialist challenger in a three-way primary. He says voters want energy and new ideas instead of accepting the way things are. He also points to Republican-led states such as Texas and Montana as examples of housing deals that crossed party lines.

A Republican push for starter homes

In Kalispell, Montana, Republican state Rep. Lukas Schubert is 21 and seeking another term. Housing sits at the top of his campaign platform alongside faith and taxes and he stresses that it is a priority for conservatives too.

Montana home prices shot up during the pandemic as newcomers poured in. Young lawmakers there helped pass a 2023 package of zoning and permitting changes meant to make building faster and cheaper. Schubert says most new construction is still either apartment blocks or multimillion-dollar mansions, leaving a hole in the middle.

His focus is starter homes, both single-family houses and duplexes. He pitched a large tax break for builders who sell new starter homes for less than 85% of the local median price. It failed last session but he plans to bring it back because owning a home remains one of the surest ways for middle-class families to build wealth.

Across party lines, all three say the goal is the same: keeping the dream of a stable, affordable home within reach for the next generation.