Millennial Voices in Ohio Politics

The Community's Conversation

If it looks like Millennials are everywhere, they are. In fact, Millennials are now America’s largest generation, surpassing the vaunted Baby Boomer generation as far back as 2019 in terms of sheer size, and the gap widens every year. If you know anyone between roughly the ages of 27 and 42 today, you know a Millennial, defined as anyone born generally between 1981 and 1996.

With so many Millennials, you might expect to find more in the halls of power as elected officials, but Baby Boomers have been hard to convince to step down or retire to make way for younger leaders, a fact not lost on many voters. As reported in August by Axios Columbus, Baby Boomers between make up about half of Congressional representatives, even though Boomers now are just 21% of the American population, and the ratio for Ohio’s federal lawmakers is even more lopsided in favor of Boomers.

But there are Millennial lawmakers to be found in Ohio’s State House, and we’re joined by a panel of State House representatives to hear what’s on their minds and how politics – and the country – might change once the Baby Boomers step off America’s political stage.

Featuring Representative Dontavius Jarrells, 1st District, Ohio House of Representatives, Representative Thomas Hall, 45th District, Ohio House of Representatives, Representative Latyna Humphrey, 2nd District, Ohio House of Representatives, and Representative Nick Santucci, 64th District, Ohio House of Representatives, with host Anna Staver, Host, All Sides with Anna Staver, WOSU Public Media.

This forum was sponsored by CivicPoint and WOSU Public Media. The forum partner was The League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Columbus. It was supported by The Ellis.

The forum livestream was presented by The Center for Human Kindness at The Columbus Foundation and The Columbus Dispatch.

It was recorded before a live audience at The Ellis in Columbus, Ohio's historic Italian Village on November 1, 2023.