Jaeger Held '23 served as Montana's youngest delegate for the 2020 DNC

When he was seven years old, Jaeger Held '23 visited Washington, D.C., for the first time. It was the winter of 2008-09, shortly after Barack Obama was elected president. The air was crisp, and all around him, the excitement was palpable. Seven years later, there was a shift in Washington. He remembers watching with unease as the 2016 election and the Trump administration unfolded. From then on, he felt an urgency to act and to be an active participant in the change he wished to see.

During his high school days, Held attended American Legion Montana Boys State, which teaches youth the fundamentals of government, and served as a legislative aide and page for the Montana House of Representatives during the 2017 and 2019 legislative sessions. Most recently, in June, he contacted the chair of the Montana Democratic Party and attended the state convention, which was conducted virtually via Zoom due to COVID-19.