Reps. Andrew Edwards & Jeffrey Fontas

Reps. Andrew Edwards & Jeffrey Fontas

Jeff and Andy, both 21, are the two youngest elected officials in the country and represent their hometown of Nashua, NH, proud birthplace of the ‘Yes We Can’ speech. Having no prior political experience, in 2006 they pioneered the historic Democratic takeover of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, using a combination of online social networking and traditional grassroots campaigning which has been detailed in the newly released book Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube & The Future of American Politics.

Jeff currently sits on the Criminal Justice & Public Safety committee and Andy sits on the Science, Technology & Energy committee. They are working on issues that resonate with fellow young people by introducing legislation in their first term to put economic pressure on the Sudanese regime to end the genocide in Darfur, and to reduce marijuana possession from a criminal offense to a violation.

They are active members of the netroots community, often writing from inside the State House, on blogs like Blue Hampshire and Daily Kos, and their own newly created blog millennialdraft.com. In early 2007 they helped organize a grassroots draft Gore campaign, however, they eventually gave in to appeals from Sen. Barack Obama to endorse him in the NH primary and have since volunteered for the campaign across the country.

Their time apart from politics and the legislature is spent at school, in Boston, MA, where Jeff is studying Political Science and Criminal Policy at Northeastern University, and Worcester, MA, where Andy is pursuing degrees in Biochemistry and Environmental studies at WPI.