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- This November’s SGV Water Board race will be Quach’s first time running for office. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Kiet Quach.
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- Quach’s alma mater, Alhambra High School, sits immediately behind both the library and City Hall.
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- Speaking with constituents of his SGV Water Board district, Quach hopes to hear about local concerns. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Kiet Quach.
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- Alhambra City Hall is the center of the city’s political scene, and where Quach has worked with City Councilperson Sasha Renee Perez.
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- Quach has spent two years on the Alhambra Library Board of Trustees, and aims to help it thrive as a community center.
The presidential election has brought one particular question to the forefront of American discourse: how old is too old to be at the helm of our government? As Gen Z begins to reach the voting age, young Americans clamor for younger leaders.
Nicolas Kiet Quach, a recent graduate of Alhambra High School, had already found a calling in politics by age 14 when he interned for then-mayor Sasha Renee Perez. At 18, Quach still strives to support his community in Alhambra through local politics.
“The perspectives and voices of young people matter,” Quach said. “Young people bring a different perspective because they’re not from this generation. We’ve been excluding a voice from the table that hasn’t been represented.”
Quach aims to mend the gap between his largely-Vietnamese community and local politics by improving local support — one pot hole and one malfunctioning traffic light at a time. As a son of Vietnamese refugees, he noticed his parents did not rely on city services. They got things done themselves — when city trash pickup was sometimes unreliable, they drove their trash to the dump. When streetlights were broken in their neighborhood, they did not think to notify the city to request maintenance.
“That’s because of their background,” Quach said about his parents. “They didn’t trust government, they didn’t think that someone like me could be in government.”
It was loyalty to his own community that led Quach to begin his career in politics.
“That’s our community … you’re either an immigrant or the children of immigrants and you usually grew up low income on CalFresh or on MediCal,” Quach said. “So looking around, that was my community and that’s what prompted me to get involved.”
Mayor of Monterey Park and Alhambra High School Civics teacher Jose Sanchez said it’s important to be civically engaged from a young age.
“I think his strengths are his youth,” Sanchez said. “Many people in politics are not young like he is, so he brings in a fresh and new perspective.”
Sanchez said he wonders if there’s a disconnect between young voters and elected officials who may not be advocating for issues affecting the younger generations, mentioning the 2024 Presidential election which has been calling attention to younger, politically-involved Americans like Quach.
“And I wonder how young people feel about electing someone who’s probably as old as their grandparents, right. And whether they, whether they feel that there’s a disconnect, perhaps, between what issues they think are important, versus what issues you might think are important, and whether they truly represent you,” Sanchez said.
Quach gained experience in politics and community involvement over the past four years. He served three terms on the Alhambra Youth Commission, sat on the Alhambra Library Board of Trustees since 2022, and acted as campaign manager for a California State Senate campaign. Additionally, Quach was the youngest person ever to serve on the Calfornia Young Democrats Executive Board as Regional Director.
As a high school freshman during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Quach sought out opportunities to fill his newfound free time. He reached out to then-mayor Perez on Instagram and asked if there was a job he could do. Perez hired him as an intern, and he spent his days working closely with her on city policies.
“I think that’s where my roots come from, is from that internship with Sasha. It showed me that young people can be in politics,” he said. “She’s about to be the youngest person in the California State Senate. Working for someone who showed me that it’s possible for young people in politics — that’s the reason why I’m in politics.”
Perez appointed Quach to the Alhambra Youth Commision, which gave him his first taste of sitting in a position with power to make change, he said. Quach and the other members of the board realized how much more they needed to do to make a difference.
Quach considers a space for young people in politics to be a priority in government, especially on a local level.
“When it comes to things like the environment, or transportation or the library, the perspectives and voices of young people matter,” Quach said. “These are the places where young people haven’t been represented, the places where we just haven’t seen those conversations beginning.”
Quach felt frustrated with the lack of power in the hands of young people in his city, which led him back to his work with Perez, who is now working as a city councilperson.
Perez’s successor, Mayor Jeff Maloney, then appointed 15-year-old Quach to the Alhambra Library Board of Trustees in 2022. This made Quach the youngest person to serve in that role by five years and the youngest City Library Trustee in the United States.
Quach said he loved working on the AYC, but it felt repetitive.
“It felt like we didn’t have an essential voice in a lot of different areas, but specifically at this library. This library is a community center, and that’s really important to me,” Quach said. “So when I thought about, well, how do I continue my public service in a way that’s meaningful to me? … This is the place.”
He was 15 years old when he was appointed by Mayor Maloney to the Library Board and Quach faced challenges in his first year serving.
“There were some folks on the Library Board, who said there are people who are older …who have experienced issues, unlike young people,” Quach said. “We’ve been having those conversations for a really, really long time. But we haven’t had the conversation around young people at this library, and how the issues affect them specifically. And we slowly got support.”
Matthew Rudzen, a political science graduate from UCLA and Alhambra resident who worked as an intern with Quach for Mayor Perez, was struck by his peer’s dedication to the city of Alhambra from the very first time they met. Rudzen and Quach worked together on community issues under Perez for years.
“I have been one of Nick’s biggest fans, biggest supporters since the beginning, ”Rudzen said. “People refer to Nick to do things that a 30 year senior staffer veteran would be doing. I have no doubt in Nick, at all of his ability to first, lead. … He has great character.”
Quach’s colleges trust him and don’t allow his age to affect his impact.
“I’ve heard Nick referred to as the youngest to do ‘X’, many times. I feel like most people would be deterred by that, because they think, oh I can’t even vote yet. Why would I do this? ” Rudzen said. “Nick just does it.”
Aside from his experience with Alhambra politics, Quach also spent his high school years working his way up the ranks of California party politics. He founded the Alhambra Young Democrats as a community chapter that covers the entire Western San Gabriel Valley, got involved with the California High School Young Democrats as the political director then president, and became the Regional Director of the California Young Democrats. Quach was also awarded 2023 Congressional Youth of the Year by Congresswoman Judy Chu and 2022 Democrat of the Year by the Los Angeles Democratic Party.
It was with the California Young Democrats that Quach began working with organization President Giovanni Chavez. Well-versed on the topic of young people in politics, Chavez has spent his career with California Young Democrats fighting to raise the low number of politically involved teens and young adults.
“The thing that was very unique with Nick was right away, he had a love for his hometown of Alhambra, and he really invested there in the local candidates, in getting out the vote, in recruiting young people in his backyard,” Chavez said. “At the end of the day, the political process is all about coalition building and bringing new people into the process, and I think Nick’s just the right person to do that.”
California Young Democrats Los Angeles Regional Director, Jessica Maldonado, agrees that not only is there a sore need for young people in politics, but that Quach is well-qualified to help fix the issue.
“There’s still that void for people that are not even out of high school. We don’t have enough,” Maldonaldo said.
After graduating high school in May of 2024, he initially ran for Alhambra City Council to represent the fourth district, but later decided to run for the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water Board, a multi-city organization that oversees the budget and distribution of public water services in Alhambra, Monterey Park, Azusa, Sierra Madre.
Sanchez encourages young individuals like Quach to become involved, reminding them of the individual impact legislation places on their agency.
“Your voice is desperately needed, because just like everyone else, you are directly impacted by the laws that are passed by this country, whether at the local, state or national level,” said Mayor Sanchez. “I think that that’s what people really respect about Nick; that at such a young age, he’s already made a name for himself, and is so involved in the community and throughout the state as well.”
Quach continues to strive to not only pursue change himself, but also motivate young people around him to carve out a place in politics.
“[Young people] are bringing new ideas to the table,” Quach said. We’re finding new compromises. And we’re saying, well, if it hasn’t worked in the past, and why are we continuing the cycle? Let’s break the cycle.”
