There he is, exhorting the crowd, introducing the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, pushing back against state plans for golf courses at .
The easy going, sharp-eyed young man sounds like a veteran of political campaigns as he lambastes his rival or tosses off obscure policy points.
But he’s billed as the youngest congressional candidate in the country, as young as one can get and still be eligible to run for Congress. of Palm Beach Gardens is 25 and taking on seasoned , an eight-year incumbent in a predominantly Republican district.
Witkop isn’t just running against Mast, he’s attacking the decorated Afghan war veteran on one of his perceived strengths: the environment.
“He says the right things. But look at how he votes in Congress,” Witkop said at the Aug. 27 rally to fight golf courses in Jonathan Dickinson State Park. “Ninety-seven percent of the time he votes against the environment, .”
Through the end of July, Mast had outraised Witkop $1.8 million to $85,000 although Witkop expects to top $200,000 in the next filing. On Wednesday, Witkop received , raising his profile.
And Mast is taking notice.
He appeared Sept. 29 on WPTV Channel 5’s to counter the previous week and scratched back.
“I laughed a little bit when I saw the interview from this past weekend,” Mast said of Witkop’s comments that Mast needs to use the Farm Bill to go after Big Sugar. “Because in fact I don’t think most of the people in the sugar industry would dump a bucket of water on me if I were on fire.”
For Witkop’s criticism of Mast’s response to the state’s proposal to build golf courses at the state park in Martin County, Mast’s office said this:
“Politicians who three weeks ago probably couldn’t tell you the difference between Jonathan Dickinson State Park and Savannas Preserve State Park should be ashamed of themselves for using an issue that unites the community in common cause to divide people for personal political gain.”
Congressional stomping grounds
It’s not unheard of for twentysomethings to win election to Congress.
- Maxwell Frost was 25 when voters in his central Florida district sent him to Congress in 2022, making him . Witkop would be about two months older than Frost was on Election Day.
- Witkop’s political mentor, Democrat Patrick Murphy, was 29 when he defeated incumbent Allen West in 2012 to win the seat Mast now holds.
- And Florida Republican Adam Putnam became a member of Congress in 2001 at age 26.
Witkop is not alone as local Democrats try to reinvigorate the party by backing two other candidates under 30.
, 26, is running against state , 81, for the District 31 seat that covers northern Palm Beach County, all of Martin County and a slice of St. Lucie County. Hawkins of Stuart, a 2020 Florida State University graduate, said his family goes back 100 years in Florida. He’s been outraised $260,000 to $5,500. Harrell.
Alberto Hernandez, 29, is challenging state in District 86, which includes the Jupiter area and Martin County. He’s a 2014 Royal Palm Beach High School graduate pursuing his bachelor’s degree at Florida Atlantic University but said he is running to raise awareness of climate change and its effects on coral. He’s been outraised $154,000 to $270. Neither candidate got .
Teaching in the Canary Islands
Just three years after graduating from St Mary’s College of Maryland, Witkop is a quick study on Democratic Party talking points concerning the border, immigration, the environment, entitlement programs and tax policy.
He traces his interest in politics to his mother, Carrie, a local activist while he was growing up in Montgomery County, Maryland. She worked with an aspiring congressman, now-U.S. , D-Md., who later would hold a campaign fundraiser for the son of his longtime supporter.
But Witkop made a stop in the Canary Islands first.
He taught English in a refugee community in the Spanish-affiliated island nation off the coast of Morocco for 10 months.
“I was talking to these students, and what I found so interesting, which I never recognized while I was living in the States, was that America is still known as the center of democracy, of freedom, of opportunity. If you ask 10 of these kids, ‘If you could live anywhere, where would it be?’ They will all say the United States of America.”
Helping Guatemalan day laborers
Witkop moved to Riviera Beach to be with his fiancee, Melody Raynaud, a teacher at Palm Beach Gardens High School. He got a job coordinating volunteers for the Jupiter center that pairs employers with day laborers, often Guatemalans with or without documentation.
“I heard it from the predominantly Guatemalan population that I worked with,” he said in an August interview. “It was these folks, these Guatemalan folks that came, and they said, ‘This is a land where you can work hard, you can get your property, and the government can’t just snatch it away from you like they can elsewhere.’
“And that’s really what developed my appreciation for our democracy, because that is the bedrock of our American dream.”
He moved into Mast’s district by renting an apartment in Palm Beach Gardens in March.
“I recognized that there’s a huge group of folks — Democrats, independents and many Republicans — who do not feel represented by our current leadership. And we didn’t have a candidate. And I thought this is an incredibly winnable race, especially with on the ballot, with with Kamala Harris taking the reins.”
It’s also a chance to reach young people.
“Believe it or not, young people don’t always know about their local councils or get excited about their local politics. So when I go to a college crowd and I say, ‘Hey, I’m running for U.S. House of Representatives,’ they lose their mind and say, ‘How can I help? How can we get involved here?’ And that leads to me helping candidates lower on the ballot.”
But it’s not just young Democrats. He’s politically savvy enough to mention that he goes wild boar hunting with Republican buddies.
“My Republican friends, they like to say, ‘Oh, well, I’m voting for Thomas, even though I’m a hardcore Republican, because he’s not some woke lib.’
“I think it’s endearing when they say it, but at the end of the day, I do stand for Democratic qualities by and large, but there are certain instances where we need to reach across the aisle and understand things that Republicans are doing, which is good.”
This story was originally published by , a WLRN News partner.
