Michael Baumgartner

If 27-year-old Democrat Kevin Fagan managed to get through a 12-person primary and unseat Rep. Michael Baumgartner, he’d be the youngest member of Congress.

As the rising median age of national politicians comes under increasing scrutiny, the Class of 2021 Gonzaga graduate from Los Gatos, California, believes the House doesn’t just need a new Democrat, but a new generation.

“We need people who represent our future in Congress, and if we’re going to be voting on bills that affect my generation and the generation yet to come, we need people who are actually representing us in Congress,” Fagan said.

In that spirit, he’s become something of a torchbearer for the next generation of Democrats in Spokane County in particular, earning the sole endorsement of the county’s Young Democrats and Sarah Dixit, the youngest member of the Spokane City Council. Young, progressive volunteers are the primary fuel for a cash-strapped campaign that hopes to accomplish what Democrats with hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars have failed to do for more than 30 years: flip the 5th.

Beyond his age, Fagan has drawn in his cohort with unabashed progressive zeal, condemning Israel’s actions in Palestine as well as the old guard Democrats’ defense of that nation, calling for the immediate dissolution of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and centering climate change as a pillar of his campaign. He considers himself the most progressive candidate in a crowded field.

On the other hand, he hesitates more than any other candidate when asked to identify common ground with Republicans or the MAGA movement. After a pause, he eventually lands on the hollowing out of the nation’s manufacturing workforce due to globalization and free markets.

“That took a great chunk of working-class union jobs that were those same jobs that we’re striving for now, where you could provide for a family on one salary,” Fagan said. “We, Democrats, dismissed a lot of those concerns around the outsourcing of those jobs, and now we have, I’d say, a pretty incomplete solution with Trump’s tariffs.”

Whatever valid criticisms progressives or conservatives alike may have for former President Joe Biden, Fagan believes he made real progress in reviving the country’s manufacturing capacity while also investing in renewable energy through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

And while “Medicare for All” is a central policy goal for Fagan, he also wants to prioritize a Right to Repair law and limits on the corporate influence of Congress, which he believes would have bipartisan support and a chance of success even with a Republican president.

The same year he graduated from Gonzaga, Fagan started working for Resource Synergy, a local sustainability consulting company that works with tribes, local agencies and businesses to reduce their environmental impact. Sometimes that work has involved navigating federal sustainability grants, or working with Northern Quest to install electric vehicle chargers, but the “bread and butter” of the business is office recycling programs and food waste diversion in restaurants, he said.

Fagan has never run for office before, and his experience in government is limited to his role with the 13-member sustainability board for the city of Spokane, to which he was appointed in 2024.

“I could have ran for city council in 2027 with an open seat in my district, and continued to pad a Democratic majority on the City Council,” Fagan said. “But as a change maker, as someone who always has wanted to make a difference each and every day, this was the best way that I could possibly imagine making a difference.”

Though he has caught the attention of a particular cohort in Spokane, the lack of name recognition in the wider district may have contributed to the worst fundraising haul of any of the candidates who announced early. By the end of March (second quarter fundraising won’t be reported until the end of June), Fagan was sitting on less than $8,000, a sizable chunk of which was raised from family and friends outside of the state, his boss at Resource Synergy, and Callie Gee, the Young Democrat running for Spokane County treasurer.

“It could obviously be going better, and I’m not going to act like it doesn’t take money to run a campaign,” Fagan said.

Given the lack of campaign money, Fagan said he will prioritize door knocking in Spokane County and social media messaging.

Fagan already has earned praise from some of the supporters of other progressive candidates, but whether he can start peeling off some of those other voters entirely – and also appeal to residents living outside Spokane County or the conservative voters of a historically safe Republican seat – remains to be tested in the months to come.