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Becoming the youngest ever state house candidate: a 2022 review [1]

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Date: 2023-01-09

Since announcing, my campaign raised funds in 31 states from 116 different donors. In terms of fundraising we have more individual contributors than the democratic challenger who was in my place last election cycle, which means we are exactly where we need to be to build enough moment to obtain more democratic votes than ever seen in this district.

In 2022 I met and spoke with around 25 elected officials and gained more insight than any of my work on field teams all over the commonwealth. My team also attended 6 events as a candidate for office while being off district to finish my semester for a portion of the time.

From my candidacy also grew my media presence, with articles in the Virginian-Pilot, The Los Angeles Blade, The Appalachian, and more bolstering our messaging and getting my face out to members of my community and beyond. I consider this one of the largest wins since launching my campaign because we are gaining more coverage on my district than we have seen with candidates prior. We also are redefining the politics of my area, where we typically see discussions strictly on agriculture and flooding, I am now able to extend those points out to advocate for lower class and otherwise margianalized folks who are impacted by those issues disproportionatey.

My campaign team has grown exponentially from me announcing my candidacy alone in bedroom. As photographed above I have two interns working with me as well as a myriad of local support and volunteers who have begun helping me gather petition signatures, send texts to voters, and knock on doors to reach out and introduce our campaign early.

As a young person in politics, pushback is ALWAYS anticipated from more established folks within all levels of politics. As we have begun canvassing voters in our neighborhoods we have discovered that some days even with support of community members and an entire campaign infastructure being developed, people are nervous about trusting someone young with taking down a long-serving republican incumbent. I look forward to earning their support in these coming months and showing them just how serious we are taking this campaing. That being said we have found lots of support along the way and I have had some amazing discussions with folks as they have signed my petition, and this is only the start.

Taking a look at the commonwealth of VA as a whole it is important to also talk about the growth in Gen Z candidates showing up for their communities. We have begun to work together to collect resources making it easier for young people to get involved and to run for office, and are looking forward to even more young Virginian’s to show up on the scene.

x .@harris4va, @ZachColtrainVB, @Cooper4Delegate, @NickGothardVA, and myself are examples of strong Democratic #GenZ candidates in VA! When someone tells you to wait your turn, they're dead wrong. — Jason Melendez (@jasonrmelendez) January 8, 2023

I couldn’t be prouder of the work everyone has put in to help me appear on the ballot this upcoming november. The people of the 98th deserve a choice to vote for someone that better represents them, and we are giving them that option. If you want to help us continue our strides into 2023, I will leave link to support our campaign below.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/9/2146291/-Becoming-the-youngest-ever-state-house-candidate-a-2022-review

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