Gen Z Political Movement In Mills County - County Supervisor, Silver City and Henderson Mayors Usher In A New Generation Of Leadership For Mills County

The word has gotten out - Mills County is the place to live if you want to be elected to political office at a young age.

In 2024, then 18-year-old Jack Sayers made history when he was elected to a seat on the Mills County Board Of Supervisors. A year later, in November 2025, 20-year-old Eva Fipps was elected mayor of Henderson and 21-year-old Joseph Jaworski was elected mayor of Silver City.
Sayers is recognized as the youngest county supervisor in the United States, while Fipps is the youngest mayor in the country and believed to be the youngest female ever elected mayor in the U.S.

“I’m the youngest of the three of us,” said the now 19-year-old Sayers. “I’ve always said government cannot be representative of its people if it does not have the broadest group of people that it possibly can and that includes age, so I really think it’s good that there’s more young people stepping up and running.”

For Fipps and Jaworski, Sayers’ election to the board of supervisors had an impact on their decision to run for political office.

“It’s a great motivator to see someone else your age (get elected to office),” Fipps said.

Sayers, Fipps and Jaworski were all encouraged to run for office by others who believed they could bring fresh ideas and new leadership to local government.

“It was kind of a case where Silver City came to me and I just kind of took the idea and ran with it,” said Jaworski, a lifelong Mills County resident and 2022 Glenwood Community High School graduate. “I didn’t think I would be fit for it, but I ended up doing a lot of research into it and decided to petition and run.”

High School Government Classes

Fipps spent most of her childhood in a small town in upstate New York and didn’t have much interest in politics until she moved to Henderson to live with her father and started taking government classes at Treynor High School.

“Obviously, as a kid, I knew nothing about politics, but starting like freshman year of high school, that’s when we first had government classes. I loved them,” she said. “Then, I went on to do the American Legion Auxiliary Girls State and then the (legislative) page program and now this.

“Jack is actually the one who introduced the page program to my school. He came and did a huge presentation on it because he went his junior year of high school. He walked me through every step of the way, including practicing for the interview questions.”

When Fipps decided to run for mayor, she reached out to Sayers.

“We talked a bit about his experience of being so young and recommendations for how to interact with different people,” she said.

Since taking office in January, Jaworski has had conversations with both Sayers and Fipps. The trio have even started their own chat group.

Dealing With Doubt, Resistance

For Sayers, the past year has certainly been a learning experience. From Day 1 on the job, he’s encountered doubt and resistance from some people because of his age. He’s been happy to discuss his experiences and offer advice to Fipps and Jaworski.

“I think a big thing is when anybody is young and gets into office, people are automatically going to count them out,” said Sayers. “That’s a real thing that happens to anybody of a certain age so my biggest piece of advice and something that I had to battle with is whenever I walk into a room, people would always think that I didn’t know what I was talking about. That’s why I struggled sometimes and didn’t ask the questions necessary to become an informed leader.  At a certain point, you just kind of got to get rid of your ego and your thoughts about yourself, and say, ‘You know what, there are things I don’t know.’

“The fact of the matter is, any new county supervisor, any new mayor, any new school board member is going to have questions. You just have to ask them.”

Sayers believes his performance as a county supervisor over the past 12 months has earned the respect of some constituents who were skeptical of his qualifications to serve on the board.

“Over time, I’ve been able to get support from people because they realize my age is only a small part of me and there’s a lot of other things that make me the man that I am,” he said. “People see my results, people see what I stand for and that’s what they care about more than anything. “I go to the senior center for coffee after all of our Tuesday board meetings. Last week, a gentleman said, ‘I think you’re still a kid but that doesn’t change the fact that you can still do your job.’”

A Learning Experience

For Fipps and Jaworski, the first six weeks on the job have been a whirlwind. Both are getting guidance from their respective city clerks – Candace Knop in Henderson and Cassandra Wilson in Silver City.

“The biggest thing this month has been learning the ordinances,” Jaworski conceded. “There’s a lot of them for every town, but it’s a lot to learn. Having the city clerk, kind of helping me learn the ropes of everything, she’s definitely been a ton of assistance throughout the month I’ve been in office.”

Fipps echoed the thoughts of Jaworski.

“It’s definitely a learning curve with any new position,” she said. “Thankfully, I have people like Candy and I have all of our council members who are willing to learn with me. They just rolled out the new training for open records and we did that. I learned more about that, how the law’s worded and what we need to do to be in compliance with it.

“I’ve also learned how to problem solve very quickly. When you’re in a meeting and you have townspeople who are bringing issues to you, you have to quickly think of solutions and propose them. I’ve watched our council members come up with solutions – I’ve got to help make those solutions. That’s one of those learning curves. You can’t just magically know everything on how to run a town in just five weeks.”

Fipps believes her age is both an asset and liability when it comes to being mayor.

“It’s kind of both,” she said. “There’s so many advantages to being younger and being more open minded, but there’s also the setback – people look at me and see the kid that used to run around on the streets a couple years ago. With being younger, you are so much more open-minded to ideas. You haven’t seen these ideas fail before so you’re willing to try them again whereas some other people might be like, ‘No, that’s failed over and over again.’ I’m just like, ‘I’m going to try it anyways.’”

Henderson, Silver City Issues

Ironically, Fipps and Jaworski have some similar issues on their agendas. Henderson and Silver City are both dealing with water-related issues and city leaders are working for upgrades to playground equipment in their parks.

“The town’s water system needs a lot of work and that’s been the case for years now,”said Jaworski.” I know the previous leadership has been working on it, but there’s a lot more work still to do on it. “And then our city park – the playground park, it’s needing some massive repairs, so that’s another thing I’m focusing on.”

Getting Henderson’s water pump repaired and playground updated are two items  high on Fipps’ agenda.

“We already have all the (playground) equipment, we just need to buy the flooring material and the labor, so we’re working on grants for that,” she said.

Fipps is helping plan Henderson’s America 250 celebration this summer. The event is tentatively planned for June 27 and will include an honor walk at Farm Creek Cemetery where over 100 veterans are buried, including four who died in active duty, a flag raising, flag burning, quilt show and opening of a time capsule from America’s bicentennial year of 1976.

“We’re also going to bury a new time capsule to be opened in 50 years,” she said.

Continuing Education

While they’re addressing the everyday issues at City Hall and helping adopt their city’s respective budgets for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, Fipps and Jaworski will also be taking some city government courses offered through the Iowa League Of Cities over the coming months.

They’ve already taken an open meetings course together and Jaworski is looking into a grant-writing class.

In addition to their mayoral obligations, Jaworski is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Bellevue University and Fipps is working on a business degree through Western Governors University. She already has an associate’s degree from Iowa Western Community College she earned while in high school. Sayers is also taking online classes.

Sayers, Fipps and Jaworski are in agreement that many young people are qualified to serve in an elected capacity and they’re hopeful their personal journeys can serve as examples for others to follow.

“I think that’s what all three of us want,” Jaworski said. “We want more younger people to get involved and I think this is a way to start that movement.”