Hannah Russell is a 17-year-old junior at Jupiter High School who doesn’t have a high school diploma yet, but she just ran a winning campaign for the Florida Legislature. Russell served as campaign manager for Elizabeth Holmes, who defeated incumbent Meg Weinberger to win the District 94 seat in what’s being described as one of the biggest upsets of the 2026 election cycle.
Russell and Holmes first crossed paths at a school board meeting where Russell was advocating for teacher pay raises, according to WPBF 25 News. That advocacy work was well documented before the campaign ever began: Russell, along with fellow Jupiter High students Sawyer Tinsley and Samuel Gilbert, had launched an online petition pushing for higher teacher pay ahead of a Palm Beach County School Board vote, according to WPTV. That petition grew from a few hundred signatures to 4,500 as the students pushed to reach 5,000 before the board’s vote, the station reported.
By the time the school board actually voted, the petition had climbed to nearly 7,000 signatures, according to WLRN. ‘We need to advocate for them,’ Russell told WLRN after that meeting, referring to teachers. It was this same advocacy that caught Holmes’s attention and eventually pulled Russell into electoral politics.
From Intern to Campaign Manager in Weeks
Holmes initially hired Russell as an intern, but promoted her to campaign manager within weeks, per WPBF’s reporting. Russell said she was nervous and didn’t think she was qualified for the role, but Holmes had a different take: the candidate said Russell did everything and that she couldn’t have hired someone better…