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Karoline Leavitt says she would have ‘laughed’ if someone told her a few years ago she might just be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
But the 25-year-old has now put herself – and perhaps her generation – to the test in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, among the most competitive in the country.
The political winds are beginning to blow in the young GOP nominee’s favor- Real Clear Politics’ election predictor recently moved the race from ‘toss-up’ to ‘leans GOP’ column. An October AARP poll showed Leavitt and Democratic incumbent Chris Pappas locked in a statistical tie, with Pappas at 48 and Leavitt at 47.
‘If you had told me four or five years ago that I would be running for Congress in my mid-twenties, I would have laughed. I certainly would expect this to be my journey, Leavitt said in an interview with DailyMail.com. She added that this year was ‘perfect timing’ for an age-defying upset as she watched Democratic rule fall out of favor in her purple home district.
Other GOP heavyweights might have been shocked too to see the ex-Trump White House and House GOP staffer’s rise to the front – House leadership split on endorsing her in a primary. Former boss Stefanik endorsed Leavitt’s race from the start while House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP Whip Steve Scalise broke for Matt Mowers, another Trump staffer.
‘I’m very thankful to the few folks in Washington who embraced me from the beginning,’ she said in an interview with DailyMail.com, citing the support of former bosses Rep. Elise Stefanik and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
Leavitt raised nearly $1 million in the two weeks following her upstart primary win. Now, the race between her and Pappas has become one of the most expensive of this election cycle, garnering more than $12 million from outside groups across the nation. It’s a key seat that will help determine who controls the House, but for Leavitt winning means ushering in a whole new era of Gen Z conservatism.
Karoline Leavitt, GOP candidate for NH-01, would be the youngest congresswoman of all time if elected
Leavitt, 25, interned in the Trump White House before taking a job in the press shop
Leavitt is pictured above with former boss and early endorser Rep. Elise Stefanik
The young Republican and New Hampshire native recalled in another recent interview how she skipped out on a football game while at college at St. Anselm to spend a Saturday filling out her White House intern application in 2018.
She landed the role, before becoming assistant press secretary in the Trump administration and then communications director for Stefanik.
‘There’s a real lack of young conservative voices that are reaching out to my generation,’ Leavitt told DailyMail.com. She said the GOP needs to take a ‘hard look in the mirror’ and realize the party is ‘losing’ with Millennials and Gen Z, soon to become the largest voting bloc in the country.
‘When you look at the halls of Congress, it’s hard for young people to resonate,’ Leavitt said.
That means it’s time for Congress’ geriatric leadership to step aside, she added. ‘I’m a big believer in term limits. Voters are desperate for youthful energy in Washington.’
‘That made me want to get involved, especially seeing the indoctrination of my generation taking place on college campuses across this country through our culture, Hollywood, Big Tech, social media, you name it – every institution is pushing liberalism, and frankly cultural Marxism, down the throats of my generation.’
Leavitt is seven months younger than another Gen Z candidate, Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost, who is favored to win his race. If elected, she would be the only 25-year-old Republican ever elected to Congress aside from outgoing Rep. Madison Cawthorn, whose conservative star-power waned after a number of crude and controversial statements and run-ins with the law left Republicans questioning his seriousness.
She would follow in the footsteps of Stefanik, who was the youngest woman elected to Congress in 2014 at age 30 before then-29-year-old Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her seat in 2018.
Asked what a Republican Congress should turn to first, Leavitt spouted off a rapid-fire list of classic conservative priorities, beginning with slashing spending.
‘We need to slash the spending, the unmitigated spending that’s coming out of DC for useless pet projects that are burdensome to taxpayers,’ Leavitt said.
She added: ‘The media wants to talk about the environment, but for us, it’s the cost of living. The American Dream has never been more unaffordable for young Americans.’
Leavitt would be the second 25-year-old GOP member of Congress after Rep. Madison Cawthorn
‘There’s a real lack of young conservative voices that are reaching out to my generation,’ Leavitt, pictured above with former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, told DailyMail.com
‘When you look at the halls of Congress, it’s hard for young people to resonate,’ Leavitt said
Leavitt, who grew up scooping ice cream at her family’s ice cream stand in Atkinson, New Hampshire, said she was running for Congress for families like her own who owned businesses and felt ‘ripped off by the current leadership in Washington.’
The next, she said, should be pushing back against critical race theory and gender theory in schools.
‘We need to fix our public education system,’ Leavitt said. ‘Critical race theory, gender theory, is having a very heavy impact on the hearts and minds of young people, so that’s an issue that’s near and dear to my heart.’
That means, she said, enacting school choice reforms and releasing public schooling from the ‘stranglehold’ of the Department of Education.
‘We need to encourage competition again in our education systems start ensuring we’re teaching kids reading writing math, not what gender they should be.’
A screen grab from Leavitt’s Instagram shows her shooting a machine gun with a caption daring President Joe Biden to ‘come and take it’. Leavitt is proudly pro-Second Amendment
Leavitt posted an image with media icon Kim Kardashian during her trip to Washington, D.C. to visit the Trump White House with released prisoners whom she helped convince the then president to grant clemency
Leavitt, who grew up scooping ice cream at her family’s ice cream stand in Atkinson, New Hampshire, said she was running for Congress for families like her own who owned businesses and felt ‘ripped off by the current leadership in Washington’
Leavitt’s response to questioning was fiery but formulaic, seeming to teeter on a fine line of MAGA Republicanism while holding on to the seriousness of the GOP establishment. After tacking to the right of frontrunner Mowers and winning her primary, she scored the endorsement of both Trump and New Hampshire’s widely popular moderate Republican Governor Chris Sununu.
Strategy is everything in New Hampshire’s swing 1st District, which switched back and forth between a Democratic and a Republican House member in each of the past six cycles before Pappas won the seat in 2018.
Both Leavitt and Pappas have tried to tie each other to their parties’ national leaders.
After Trump endorsed Leavitt earlier this month, she said in a statement:’Never Trumpers, Forever Trumpers, Independents, and common sense Democrats are supporting our campaign because they know America cannot withstand another two years of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chris Pappas’ policies.’
Pappas meanwhile, claimed Leavitt ‘held the line on January 6th for Trump as he cheered the violent attack on our Capitol.’
‘This endorsement is today’s reminder that she’s blindly loyal to him and can’t cite a single issue where she breaks with Trump,’ Pappas posted on social media.
‘I consistently continue to be the only candidate in this race who says that I believe the 2020 election was undoubtedly stolen from President Trump,’ Leavitt said during a debate a week before the primary.
But in her interview with DailyMail.com, Leavitt brushed aside the blind loyalty allegation, without using Trump’s name. ‘That is just more political speak for the Democratic Party,’ she said, adding of Pappas: ‘He’ll say or do anything to retain his power, and I’m not surprised.’
Asked if she had any aspirations beyond the House, the ambitious young candidate chuckled. ‘No, I’m very focused on winning this election in 10 days,’ she said. ‘It will truly be the honor of a lifetime.’
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