Republicans Mocking Rep-elect Maxwell Frost Too Fancy To Know How Renting Apartments Work

They're not out of touch! You're out of touch!

The new representative from Florida's 10th Congressional District is 25-year-old Maxwell Frost. When he's sworn in Tuesday, he'll become the youngest member of the House of Representatives. That title was previously held by Madison Cawthorn, whose freak show was not renewed for another season.

 Like many Gen Zers, Frost has financial troubles and has struggled to find an apartment in Washington DC, which is where Congress does its congressing. Last month, he tweeted, "Just applied to an apartment in DC where I told the guy that my credit was really bad. He said I’d be fine. Got denied, lost the apartment and the application fee. This ain’t meant for people who don’t already have money."

“For those asking, I have bad credit cause I ran up a lot of debt running for Congress for a year and a half," he added. "Didn’t make enough money from Uber itself to pay for my living."

Although Frost explained why he was rejected for an apartment, the usual Twitter suspects assumed he was lying because he's about to earn $175,000 a year as a member of Congress. He should easily afford a modest apartment even in DC, where the average rent is $2,335. This ignores a couple things: He's not making that salary yet, and as he clearly stated, he has bad credit. Anyone who's rented an apartment in a major city can appreciate his situation. It's why he have a housing crisis in this country.

Frost quit his full-time job to run for Congress as a full-time candidate. That's "seven days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day," he said. "It's not sustainable or right but it's what we had to do. As a candidate, you can’t give yourself a stipend or anything till the very end of your campaign. So most of the run, you have no [money] coming in unless you work a second job."

Folks also expressed surprised that Frost paid a fee upfront when applying for a apartment. This is common, and landlords claim it's to cover the costs of reviewing the applications and conducting background and credit checks. Justified or not, it's another barrier for lower income people seeking housing.

Frost discussed his situation during an interview with Jonathan Karl on ABC's "This Week." He said he'd probably "have to, like, couch surf for a little bit." The geniuses who run the RNC Research Twitter account immediately pounced:  

“Florida Democrat Congressman-elect Maxwell Frost — whose salary as a Member of Congress will be $174,000/year — says he's "probably just gonna have to like couch surf for a little bit."”

— RNC Research (@RNC Research) 1672589490 

Republicans have a whole George Santos to worry about, but they're still throwing stones from their glass jaw of a house. They selectively edit 12 seconds from the interview so they can mock Frost, but in those 12 seconds, he still explains that he has bad credit! It doesn't matter if he's about to make $175,000 a year — emphasis on the "about to make." He won't receive his first paycheck until February. He'd also need to come up with first and last month's rent plus a security deposit. That can easily amount to several thousand dollars. The poorly named "RNC Research" just demonstrated that Republicans are both out-of-touch and completely lacking in basic empathy.

Jake Schneider at RNC Research insists, "It's not that [Frost] can’t afford it yet or that he has bad credit." No, it's exactly that. Those are very compelling reasons. "It's that he’s a representative for 750,000+ people now and he accepts 'probably just gonna have to like couch surf' as the solution to his problem and just leaves it at that."

Yes, apparently Florida's 10th Congressional District deserves a representative who can find more creative solutions to his housing problems — maybe he could pose as a woman with his friend Tom Hanks and take advantage of the cheaper rent at a women's only residence. (Slight tangent, the cost of an entire separate women's wardrobe would greatly reduce any potential savings here.)

Schneider probably sneers at "couch surfing" because it's what poor people do. Frost can't stay in a friend or relative's guest room or rental property. Frost's situation isn't even that unique for DC, where Congress members have long complained about high rental prices. Representatives, including Paul Ryan, have slept in their offices or bunked with other House members. The latter remains an option for Frost, but he should make sure not to share an apartment with George Santos. There's a good chance he'd get stuck with the rent and utility bills.

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