‘If you have something to say, if you’ve got a vision … put your vision out and give it to the people’

By Charlotte Matherly, Concord Monitor & Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

The first time 18-year-old Valerie McDonnell voted, she voted for herself.

She ran for the N.H. House of Representatives in 2022 during her senior year of high school, which gave her a front-row seat to witness many of her classmates’ apathy for politics and patriotism. Her campaign got them involved.

“A lot of the people voting for me, it was their first time voting,” McDonnell said. “A number of my classmates who would not have otherwise registered to vote came out and voted for me, even held signs for me at the polls.”

McDonnell, a Republican, is the youngest state representative in New Hampshire. Now, at age 20, she’s running for reelection to represent Salem in the state House of Representatives, and she views it as another opportunity to get young people engaged in elections. Some of her classmates are still involved and intend to vote up and down the ballot this November, she said.

During her freshman term, she has become friends with Jonah Orion Wheeler, a Democratic representative from Peterborough who was elected at age 19 and is running for a second term. Both won their primary elections earlier this month.

Wheeler said walking into the State House for the first time as an elected public official was intimidating but exciting.

“When you’re a 19-year-old walking into the big, scary building that you’ve seen your whole life as a representative and you get your golden badge and it finally sets in that you are a state representative — now that is a scary moment, and there’s no doubt about it,” Wheeler said. “It’s that feeling of anticipation, which anxiety isn’t always a bad thing. I was anxious about what could be accomplished in the two years that I had in the Legislature.”

McDonnell agreed — the emotions she felt walking into the historic Capitol two years ago have never faded.

“I still get the feeling of excitement,” McDonnell said. “It’s like, ‘Wow, is this really happening?’ I’m just so happy to be here and feel it every day.”

On being young in the Legislature

She doesn’t view her youth as an advantage or a barrier to her work in the Legislature, compared to other lawmakers — it’s just different, she said.

In her role on the House Education Committee, for example, she said she brings a qualified perspective and experience to issues that affect young people like herself. She graduated from high school in 2022, received her bachelor’s degree this year and is now in law school.

Once Wheeler got going, he said he never really thought about his age. He observed and learned as he went, but he never felt impostor syndrome. He knew he’d be a good legislator, he said, and he ran for this job with a vision — he’s proof that young people can hold these positions when they “actually have the grit to get it done,” he said.

Like any representative, Wheeler said, his own life experience informs the perspective he brings to the Legislature. He was raised by a working-class single mother, and as a teenager felt disillusioned and apathetic about politics.

“The life that I lived allows me to be the legislator that I am. … I lived a very maturing 21 years, and I am not some rascal or some hooligan,” Wheeler said. “I am confident in what I believe, and I know how to articulate that in a nice and respectful manner. And people respect that.”

Daily life as a legislator

How busy a legislator is depends on his or her committee assignments, Wheeler said. He’s on the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, which means he has a lot to do. Legislating is a “contact sport,” he said, so he’s typically in Concord four or five days a week.

New Hampshire legislators are the lowest-paid in the country, earning $100 a year plus mileage. To be able to commit enough time to lawmaking, some people have side gigs. McDonnell, for example, works a retail job on nights and weekends. She already has her bachelor’s degree, and this fall, she’s starting classes at the Massachusetts School of Law. She’s never strictly in work mode, school mode or lawmaker mode — it all sort of blends together, she said.

“I try to be just about everywhere,” said McDonnell. While at work, she often sees community members come in. “A lot of times they recognize me from my work in the Legislature and we’ll talk about it, so it just gives me more opportunities to connect, so everything correlates and relates to each other.”

Wheeler has expressed a desire to go to college, but he said the Legislature is better than any political science class he could ever take. He may pursue higher education someday, but for now, he feels an obligation to his community and family.

“I would feel remiss if I just left right now,” Wheeler said. “I think there’s so many things to do here.”

Advice for young people

McDonnell and Wheeler encouraged young people to run for public office. Whether that’s the Legislature, a local planning board or otherwise, they said the first step is getting involved in the community, connecting with neighbors and listening to their needs.

*Jonah Wheeler of Peterborough campaigns for a seat in House District 33 outside the Peterborough Community Center on Tuesday. Courtesy*

McDonnell said her first meeting was with the Salem GOP — she went to hear about one issue, then learned about a dozen others. She said anyone interested in running for office should start by attending local meetings and events.

“If you have something to say, if you’ve got a vision … put your vision out and give it to the people,” Wheeler said.

McDonnell said she hopes their positions in the Legislature can help young people feel empowered to participate in government and politics.

“We’re representing younger voters, and a lot of the problems that we’ve been facing as a younger population is a lack of interest in politics and just an apathetic attitude towards getting involved in government,” McDonnell said. “To see younger legislators like Jonah and myself really could increase the voter turnout among this age group.”

The Know Your Vote, youth voter guide project was designed, reported and produced by student and young professional journalists from The Clock, Concord Monitor, The Equinox, Granite State News Collaborative, Keene State College, Laconia Daily Sun, Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, Nashua Ink Link and the Presidency and the Press program at Franklin Pierce University. See the full guide at www.collaborativenh.org/know-your-vote.