Two 19-year-old Democratic Party candidates have won elections in Massachusetts and Arizona, emerging among the youngest politicians to secure public office in the 2026 US midterm elections.
Daniel Darris-O’Connor defeated eight-term Republican incumbent Marc Lombardo to win the 22nd Middlesex District seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Darris-O’Connor, a student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, won by 438 votes in a closely contested race, according to election results.
He thanked voters and supporters in a Facebook post, promising residents of Billerica an “active, effective voice on day one this January.”
Lombardo acknowledged his defeat, saying, “We fell just short in a very close race.”
He also thanked constituents for giving him “the privilege to serve you as State Representative for 16 years.”
Darris-O’Connor developed an interest in politics during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he was in seventh grade.
He previously won a seat on Billerica’s Select Board in 2025 while still in high school.
In Arizona, Sebastian Matta, a sophomore at Arizona State University, won the election for Clerk of the Superior Court in Maricopa County.
Matta defeated former state lawmaker Jeff Dial, who conceded after unofficial results showed the 19-year-old leading by more than 85,000 votes.
“I saw that nobody on the Democratic side had submitted themselves to this office in nearly a decade.
"And I figured, ‘You know, why not?’” Matta told The Arizona Republic.
He has promised to improve access to court services, particularly for residents who speak languages other than English.
The victories formed part of a wider Democratic wave in the midterm elections, with the party also making significant gains in national and state-level contests.
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