(bright gentle music) (bright inquisitive music) - Welcome to "The Newsfeed," I'm Paris Jackson.

In recent years, a new small wave of younger politicians have begun to slowly win city council seats in Western Washington.

These politicians who are all under 30 are pushing to the forefront issues concerning housing affordability, transit access, and climate change.

The newest member of the "Cascade PBS News" team, reporter Nate Sanford, joined me to share more about what he's covering and discuss this burgeoning group of younger local leaders.

We wanna welcome a new "Cascade PBS" reporter to our newsroom, Nate Sanford.

Nate, thank you for joining us on "The Newsfeed."

- Yeah, thank you for having me.

- You're a Murrow news fellow, and you'll be covering policy and politics with a focus on young people.

Tell us a little bit more about what you're interested in digging into.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So this is the new position that we're kind of, you know, still figuring out exactly what direction that's gonna take.

But, you know, I see it focusing on a lot of issues that, you know, stuff like affordable housing, right?

That impacts everyone, but I think is often really more acutely felt by people kind of, you know, in their 20s and 30s, right?

You know, we know Washington's not an affordable state to live in, especially for young people, right?

- Your recent story focuses on a class of young council members in Washington State, and one thing that was interesting to read, but also not surprising, is the majority of them seem to question the bureaucracy of getting things done.

Tell us what you found interesting about their perspective.

- Yeah, definitely, so, you know, I talked to you about half a dozen council members in Washington State who are all under 30.

And, you know, one kind of common theme is that, you know, as we know, government often moves very slowly, you know, in some ways it can feel like excuses for not getting things done.

There's sometimes a sense of like, things have always been done this way, right?

And maybe if you're a young person in politics, you would question, you know, why have things always been done this way?

And do we need to keep doing things this way?

- Again, as you mentioned, you spoke with a half a dozen politicians.

What stood out to you, aside from the fact that things move slowly in government?

- One really common theme was just how much housing was a huge motivator for so many people I talked to.

Almost all of the young politicians I talked to are renters, right?

They do not own property, and in many cases, they're the only people who sit on their respective city councils who are not homeowners.

But, you know, a lot of them were saying that it's actually really, really important to have that perspective represented, right?

I think it's really a key issue of people in that age group.

- There were several barriers, and one of those is the financial component of being in their position compared to their more like, experienced, older colleague.

What was kind of that common thread that you ran into?

- Yeah, so, you know, running for office is, you know, it's both expensive and very time consuming, which can be difficult if you're a young person who doesn't have a lot of time or money, right?

You know, if you're someone who's retired, maybe has savings, you know, you have that time in your day to devote to both running for office and actually sitting in elected office, right?

Most of these young politicians I talk to are, you know, working full-time, you know, day jobs, right?

To support themselves financially, while at the same time, balancing, you know, city council responsibilities.

And that's just a huge time commitment that can be really hard to balance if you're like a lot of young people kind of trying to, you know, just getting started basically, right?

And entering the workforce.

- Very fascinating story.

Thank you so much for joining us, Nate.

- Yeah.

Thank you for having me.

- Absolutely.

If you wanna read more of Nate's work, just head over to cascadepbs.org.

(gentle music) If you know of high school juniors, seniors, or students interested in transferring to a historically Black college or university, mark your calendars.

(bright gentle music) January 18th, Seattle Public Schools is hosting a Black College Expo from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM at Rainier Beach High School.

More than 50 colleges will be there, ready to waive application fees.

The district says the expo's open to students of all ages.

I'm Paris Jackson, find nonprofit Northwest news every day on cascadepbs.org.

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