2025 Prize Winner Layla Zaidane Named to the Time 100 NEXT List

"Layla Zaidane believes in the power of young people to renew our democracy—and she’s built a life proving it. Long before she became president and CEO of Future Caucus, Layla was organizing young voices on college affordability and campus safety, showing how fresh leadership could change national conversations. I know this firsthand: early in our careers, we worked side by side, and I saw her skills up close.

Today, she leads the largest nonpartisan network of millennial and Gen Z lawmakers in the country, helping them bridge deep partisan divides, write future-­oriented policy, and model a politics rooted in collaboration rather than contempt.

Now more than ever before, we need young leaders who choose a politics of grace over rage, unity over division. Layla reminds me that progress is not inevitable, but it is possible when hope and courage outweigh cynicism."