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This article is one of 74 2024 election coverage, which examines the candidates’ education policies and their potential impact on the American market. education system after the 2024 elections.

In an election that saw Republicans secure the White House and both houses of Congress, Sarah McBride’s congressional victory in Delaware delivered a historic victory for Democrats, transgender representation and young people.

By winning a House seat representing Delaware, McBride, 34, became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, just four years after the Democrat was elected the nation’s first transgender state senator. Unprecedented in any year and especially when conservatives have routinely attacked the transgender community, McBride’s victory also marked a major victory for a multi-million dollar campaign – launched by David Hogg, survivor of a shooting in school – to elect young legislators to state and national office.

“From the youngest senator to the first trans member of Congress, Delaware knows what young leaders can accomplish when given the opportunity, just look at Joe Biden,” Hogg posted on X, commenting on how the 81-year-old president was first elected to Congress in 1972, just days before his 30th birthday.

After Hogg survived the 2018 Parkland, Fla., school shooting that killed 17 of his classmates and educators, he became a formidable upstart in Democratic politics, focusing on election of Gen Z and Millennial Democrats. His latest effort is The leaders we deservea political action committee formed in 2023 that raised nearly $8.5 million in September to boost the campaigns of McBride and a dozen other young candidates.

“Leaders We Deserve is proud to say that Sarah will be our first elected candidate for Congress,” Hogg wrote.

Beyond McBride’s high-profile victory, candidates backed by Hogg’s PAC have had mixed results — with more defeats than victories. Of a dozen candidates who were offered campaign money and on-the-ground outreach by Leaders We Deserve, five won their races and seven lost.

These include the successful campaign of a seventh-grade math teacher in Atlanta, the defeat of a former Miss Texas who campaigned for a seat in the House of Representatives on a gun control platform to fire and setback encountered by a 28-year-old mother who started it. Campaigned for the Tennessee House of Representatives after the state denied her access to abortion.

Leaders We Deserve has pumped millions of dollars – and resources from Democratic power players – into the campaigns of young candidates who support progressive causes such as gun control, reproductive rights and protecting state funding. public schools. The PAC did not respond to requests for comment.

Other Leaders We Deserve-backed candidates who defeated their Republican opponents include Dante Pittman, whose election in the North Carolina General Assembly helped Democrats break the Republican supermajority. In Hogg’s home state of Florida, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost — who, at age 27, became the first Gen Z member to serve in Congress — was re-elected bid with almost 62 percent of the vote.

In Georgia, Bryce Berry, middle school math teacher defeated an incumbent president who switched from Democrat to Republican last year after leaving the party ranks to support private school vouchers. In Ohio, Democrat Christine Cockley easily defeated His Republican rival Hussein Jabiri.

Among the seven candidates who were unsuccessful were Kristian Carranza, whose campaign for a closely guarded seat in the Texas House of Representatives obtained over a million dollars in Leaders We Deserve before losing in a close race to Republican rival and incumbent state Rep. John Lujan. In another competitive race in Texas, Republican Rep. Angie Chen Button won ninth election in the Texas Legislature, defeating Democrat Averie Bishop.

In Pennsylvania, Joe Emrick, a former teacher and longtime Republican representative was re-electeddefeating Democrat Anna Thomas, backed by Leaders We Deserve, whose campaign focused on strengthening school funding. Republican Mike Sparks, who has served in the Tennessee House of Representatives since 2010, defeated Democrat Luis Mata.

In another Tennessee House race, Republican Jeff Burkhart was re-elected in a closely watched contest against Democrat Allie Phillips, who said she was forced to leave the state to terminate a nonviable pregnancy because of Tennessee’s strict abortion laws. After defeating Phillips, supported by Leaders We Deserve, Burkhart said his campaign was about “fighting California, New York and everyone else.”

Nate Douglas, 23, a University of Florida graduate, failed in his bid to oust Florida Republican Rep. Susan Plasencia. The Douglas campaign leaned heavily on efforts to get out the student vote.

In Georgia, Republican Senator Shawn Still was re-electeddefeating Democrat Ashwin Ramaswami by 7 percentage points. Ramaswami, 25, was still in law school when he decided to campaign against Still, who in 2023 was one of 18 people who were indicted alongside President-elect Donald Trump on allegations of plotting to overturn Trump’s 2020 presidential election defeat in the state.

After Trump regained control of the White House and Republicans were elected in races across the country, Hogg turned to X to reiterate his argument that new, young voices are more critical than ever.

“It’s time for big changes in the Democratic Party,” he wrote.

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