Zaidane is the president and CEO of Millennial Action Project.
Millennials are sweeping into public office: From 2018 to 2020, the United States saw a 266 percent increase in young people running for Congress. In 2021, young people made history with candidates like Nadarius Clark, the youngest Democrat elected to the legislature in Virginia history, and 36-year-old Brandon Umba, a Republican elected to the New Jersey General Assembly. It’s clear from this swell of young people stepping into public service that we are not only ready to shift the political status quo, but we see ourselves as agents of change to do just that. However, to succeed, there’s one thing this generation of elected leaders is missing: professional development.
Kaplan Solutions attributes major benefits to professional development, including increased retention, confidence and credibility, easier succession planning, re-energized staff, and increased efficiency. A recent Gallup report found that 59 percent of millennials say opportunities to learn and grow are extremely important to them when applying for a job. That’s more than any other generation, and legislators are no exception. Freshman members of the House of Representatives are asking for resources that can help them navigate the modern challenges they face. Instead, as Rep. Ilhan Omar shared, “When people are giving you advice, it’s from decades ago as a freshman.”
It’s not always a question of will. In some cases, more senior legislators simply lack the skills that new legislators desperately need to learn. As Congress has become increasingly hyper-polarized, the most visible policymakers are not always the best role models for young leaders. That puts new lawmakers in a tough position: They can either learn bad behaviors from the colleagues they see around them, or they can try to learn how to be an effective policymaker without any support or resources to do so.
In a hearing held by the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, freshmen asked for more robust onboarding and professional development in areas like promoting civility and respect, as well as in leadership training. The committee’s vice chair, Rep. Will Timmons, said in a joint statement with fellow committee member Mary Gay Scanlon, “We came to Congress with different backgrounds but with a similar goal, and that’s to solve problems for the American people. By improving the support, resources, and tools available to new Members of Congress, we can help the next generation of leaders get to work as soon as they set foot in our nation’s capital.” This desire for professional development doesn’t stop with young legislators. Congressional staffers reported similar needs when it comes to investing in their career growth and development. Yet instead of receiving the support they require, these aides — the majority of whom are millennials — are burning out at their jobs and quitting in just 3.1 years.
The outcome of providing more professional development is clear: Our young elected officials and their teams want training to craft and enact good policies for their constituents. The more equipped our leaders are, the more equipped we are to tackle issues important for the future. And the good news is, even though millennials may feel under-equipped for the positions they are taking on today, the tide seems to be turning when it comes to investing in the future. Millennial-run congressional offices have begun advocating for improving pay and benefits, along with securing up-to-date technology, equipment and platforms for their staff.
Millennials are now the largest generation in America, making up the majority of the American workforce, military, consumers and more. They are diving into leadership positions such as CEOs, managers, investors and even members of Congress. As millennials take the reins, our success will ripple across the organizations, industries and institutions that we lead. It’s in everyone’s best interest to make sure that the next generation of leaders has the tools, training and skills to do their jobs well. Young people have taken the first step towards changing our politics for the better. Now we need to make sure they have the resources available to get the job done.
A view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2026. President Donald Trump jolted Republicans during a fiery appearance at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, scrapping a housing bill signing ceremony and clashing behind closed doors with a party rebel who challenged him over the Iran war. Trump had been expected to sign the bipartisan housing.
Only Trump doesn’t care about housing
It was August 15, 2024. Then candidate Donald Trump stepped out of his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club’s columned clubhouse to a gaggle of reporters. He was flanked by tables of groceries and signs showing the rising cost of food. Also on one of the tables was a dollhouse, meant to represent the equally alarming rise in housing prices.
It was a speech about the economy, the single most important issue of the 2024 election cycle, full of promises that went right to the heart of Americans’ anxieties. While former President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris were contorting themselves to posture a good economy that just needed more time to recover from the pandemic, Trump was preying on voters’ very real fears of unaffordable gas, groceries, and homes. It was obviously a winning message.
In that speech, Trump promised, “We’re going to open up tracts of federal land for housing construction. We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.”
As of mid-2023, there had been a housing shortage of nearly four million homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. Americans all over the country were either priced out of buying new homes due to low inventory, trapped in their existing homes by sky-high mortgage rates, or facing exorbitant rent hikes thanks to corporate investors buying up rental properties. Americans needed help, and Trump promised it.
Cut to March of 2026, when Trump reportedly told House Speaker Mike Johnson, “No one gives a sh*t about housing.”
That kind of thinking may explain why Trump this week suddenly announced he was canceling a signing ceremony for the bipartisan “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” a housing bill co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott that passed the House 358-32 and was approved in the Senate on Monday.
Trump instead demanded Congress pass the SAVE America Act, his controversial election grievance bill that doesn’t have enough Republican support to get passed in the Senate.
It’s just the latest in a line of policy self-owns where Trump has seemingly intentionally made life more difficult for Republicans hoping to keep their majority. Despite midterm elections occurring in the midst of a blistering economy and an unpopular war, they were surely hoping the housing bill would give them something — anything — to brag about when they returned home to their districts.
And very much to the contrary, Americans do give a sh*t about housing. According to a recent survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a whopping 79% say the cost of housing is extremely or very important to them. Eighty-three percent say Congress should take action on the issue — like it just did. Eighty-nine percent say the House and Senate need to work together to pass affordable housing legislation — like they just did. And 63% say they would be more likely to vote for a lawmaker if they helped pass legislation to build more affordable homes and lower housing costs — like they just did.
There aren’t many issues that unite Americans like housing does, and very few bipartisan policy wins Congress can point to, and yet, Trump is holding that bill hostage in order to get his pet project — which doesn’t even have the support of his own party — pushed through.
If you’re trying to make sense of something so nonsensical, as I’m sure many Republican lawmakers are, it’s certainly sad but not actually all that complicated. Trump said what he needed to get reelected and then promptly abandoned his promises in order to pursue his own self-interests, even if those interests are bad for Republicans and bad for voters.
That’s just the kind of guy he is.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.