Former Missouri congressional candidate Hartzell Gray explains why he believes his socialist platform represents the future of the Democratic Party as DSA-backed candidates pick up seats.

Young Americans are frustrated. They graduated into an economy battered by inflation. They watched home prices and mortgage rates climb beyond reach. Many have delayed marriage and children because they are worried they cannot afford the life their parents built. They increasingly wonder whether they will ever own a home, comfortably raise a family or achieve the American Dream.

The political left recognizes this frustration. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other Democratic Socialists have attracted young supporters by promising sweeping government solutions: free child care, free transportation, government-run grocery stores, rent freezes and taxpayer-funded everything.

These promises are fiscally unsustainable, but that is beside the point politically. Socialists are speaking directly to a generation that believes the system is no longer working for them, and they are offering an ambitious vision for changing it.

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Conservatives cannot answer that vision by simply saying, "No."

The Young American Family Act is designed to make life easier for young parents starting out by removing their federal tax burden. (monkeybusinessimages via Getty Images)

If we want to win the next generation, we must answer their central question: How will you help me build a family and a future?

Our answer should not come through a larger welfare state, greater government control or a Marxist agenda that would ultimately leave Americans poorer and less free. It should come through greater freedom for families to build their own futures.

That is why we are proposing the Young American Family Act.

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The idea is simple: Married couples under the age of 35 who have at least one child would pay no federal income tax. This would not be an inflationary stimulus check, a complicated new tax credit or another federal bureaucracy. Washington would not decide how families should spend the benefit. It would simply let families keep more of the money they worked to earn.

The policy would provide its greatest benefit during the most financially demanding years of family life. Young couples could use that money to purchase their first home, pay for childcare, save for retirement, invest in their children’s education, or build the financial reserve that makes having another child possible.

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The Young American Family Act represents a fundamentally different vision from socialism. The left says government should tax your income, build a new program and determine which benefits you receive. Conservatives should say that families — not the federal government — know best how to build their future with their money.

This debate could not arrive at a more urgent moment.

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America is confronting fertility rates near historic lows, declining marriage and delayed homeownership. The provisional fertility rate fell again in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These trends carry long-term consequences, including a declining workforce, slower economic growth and greater pressure on Social Security and Medicare.

The idea is simple: Married couples under the age of 35 who have at least one child would pay no federal income tax. 

But this is about more than economics. Public policy should encourage the institutions that help Americans flourish, and the evidence consistently shows that marriage and family are among the most important.

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In the 2022 General Social Survey, 37% of married parents between the ages of 18 and 55 described themselves as "very happy," compared with 27% of married adults without children. Among adults ages 18 to 34, 43% of married parents said they were very happy, compared with 30% of married adults without children. Unmarried adults reported substantially lower levels of happiness.

A representative 2025 YouGov survey of 3,000 American women ages 25 to 55 similarly found that married mothers were nearly twice as likely as unmarried women without children to report being very happy. The differences remained even after researchers accounted for age, income and education.

The economic differences are equally striking.

Census Bureau data show that only 5% of married parents lived below the poverty line in 2022, compared with 34% of unmarried parents living together. Married-parent families were also much more likely to own their homes: 77%, compared with 44% of unmarried-parent couples and 40% of mother-only families.

These figures do not mean marriage guarantees happiness or that every family fits the same mold. They demonstrate a strong and remarkably consistent association: Americans who are married and raising children are, on average, happier and more financially secure.

Why, then, does our government so often make it more difficult to form and support a family?

For decades, Washington has spent trillions of dollars attempting to manage the consequences of family breakdown while giving too little attention to strengthening the family itself. The tax code should not penalize marriage or make it harder for responsible young couples to raise children. It should reduce poverty and recognize that strong families create strong communities and form the foundation of a stable republic.

The left has understood something conservatives too often overlook: When people lose hope in the future, they become receptive to radical ideas.

History demonstrates this repeatedly. During periods of economic insecurity and declining opportunity, people become willing to embrace dramatic political change if they believe it promises a better life. The socialist left understands this dynamic exceptionally well.

Its proposals do not even need to pass immediately to have an effect. By relentlessly advocating ideas once considered radical, the left moves the Overton Window and changes the boundaries of what Americans consider politically possible.

For decades, Washington has spent trillions of dollars attempting to manage the consequences of family breakdown while giving too little attention to strengthening the family itself. 

Conservatives too often find ourselves responding to those shifts instead of setting the agenda ourselves.

That must change.

The conservative movement should offer the boldest vision for restoring the American Dream. Defending free markets and opposing destructive policies remain essential, but they are not enough. We must present an ambitious agenda that gives young Americans confidence that they can build wealth, buy a home, marry and raise children.

The Young American Family Act would reward work, marriage, child-rearing and ownership — the foundations of a healthy country. It would strengthen families without creating a new government dependency. Most importantly, it would send a clear message: America should be the best place in the world to start a family.

If Democratic Socialists can propose government control over housing, transportation, food and childcare, conservatives can be equally bold in returning power and money to American families.

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We do not need to abandon our principles to compete with the left’s ambition. We need to apply our principles with greater imagination.

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It is time for the right to stop merely defending yesterday’s policies and start advancing tomorrow’s American Dream for young Americans and their families.

Jayme Franklin is the founder and CEO of The Conservateur, a leading media platform for conservative women focused on culture, faith, family, femininity and style. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, she began her career in politics working in the U.S. Senate, on President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, and in the White House. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Drake, and their daughter, Vivienne.

Drake Franklin serves as the Southeastern development director and policy analyst for American Values at the America First Policy Institute. He previously served as executive director of Evangelicals for President Donald Trump during the 2020 presidential campaign. Franklin served as a White House intern in the Office of Presidential Correspondence. He resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Jayme, and their daughter, Vivienne. 

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