At 26 years old, Caroline Fairly is not only the youngest member of the Texas House of Representatives but also its first Generation Z legislator. 

Fairly was elected in 2024 to represent Texas House District 87, which encompasses parts of Amarillo and stretches into rural parts of Texas, north and northwest of Amarillo. 

In early 2024, Fairly won the Republican primary for House District 87 with 59.9% of the vote, defeating three other candidates. She easily won the General election in her district which has many more Republican voters than Democratic. 

“It’s pretty special,” Fairly says when reflecting on the election and being able to represent a district which she believes aligns with her conservative values — something that she views as advantageous when voting on legislation. But, she said she knows that her constituents expect her to work. 

“I got elected by my constituents to deliver results."

Born and raised in Texas, Fairly said she has always been aware of the responsibilities that come with leadership. 

House District 87 is also quite large geographically covering eight Texas counties with a strong agricultural presence. 

“Ag is huge,” Fairly says. “Farming and ranching is a really big part of the district.” 

With a big agricultural district comes big concerns about the issue of water. “When I campaigned last year, that was one of the biggest issues that came up,” says Fairly. 

“What are we going to do about water? How do we handle it?” 

While Fairly recognizes that action needs to be taken now to address concerns of drought and water shortages, she understands that the issue is a long-term issue with long-term solutions. 

“We’re not going to fix the issue in the next two or three years,” she says. “This is the next twenty, thirty years.” 

Fairly was thankful to be appointed to the House Natural Resources Committee, where she can work on policy issues related to water in Texas.

The committee is chaired by Representative Cody Harris and has jurisdiction over “the conservation of the natural resources of Texas” and “the control and development of land and water and land and water resources,” among other things. 

“Texas has the funds and we have the resources,” Fairly says. “We just need to make sure we allocate them in the best way.” 

Another issue that Fairly is passionate about is the impact of technology on mental health. As a member of Gen Z, Fairly said she is well aware of some of the challenges caused by too much technology on younger people. 

“Generation Z is more anxious and worried,” she says when compared to past generations. She pointed to studies that indicate there is a correlation between the use of social media and what she described as a mental health crisis among young people. 

In response, Fairly introduced House Bill 1481, which seeks to prohibit the use of personal electronic devices in Texas’ public schools. She believes reducing distractions and enhancing focus can benefit the next generation of Texas children. 

“My vision is simple,” Fairly says. “We want phones up in a way so that kids can focus on their education.” 

Having recently observed classroom dynamics firsthad, Fairly shares her experience in a classroom where students were disengaged, absorbed with their phones during class time. 

“The teachers had no classroom management,” she says. “The kids had their laptops set up with their phones behind the screen. It was so disruptive.” 

In addition to suspected benefits in the classroom, Fairly says that she expects there to be benefits at recess and outside of the classroom. She shared the perspective of one parent from her district who said, “when they banned phones [in our school], the cafeteria was louder” because students were off their phones and were engaging with other students instead. 

While being insistent that something must be done to limit phone use in schools, Fairly says she understands that we technology is an integral part of modern life. 

“We want them to be equipped to experience and learn, but we also want to make sure that we don’t expose them to things that are harmful to their mental health."

According to Fairly, the potentially dangerous content and risks that are out in the digital space are abundant. Fairly filed House Bill 2551, which seeks to address issues related to sexually explicit visual material and the emerging dangers of deepfakes. 

“98% of deepfakes are pornographic, and out of the 98%, 99% are targeted to women,” she says. 

By passing her bill and expanding the definition of deepfakes to include images and artificial intelligence — generated content, she hopes to protect individuals from being victimized. 

“We don’t want women to be victims of pornography or A.I. deepfakes,” Fairly says. 

While she is the youngest member of the legislature, she was encouraged about the reception to this bill by even the representatives of much older generations. She said they had been very supportive and understood the issue.