After earning an engineering degree at Washington State University, Erik Larson did something out of the ordinary for a millennial who grew up in Aberdeen: He came back home to the old timber town pundits have written off as dying. In 2015 he was elected mayor, winning nearly 72 percent of the vote. Larson was 23. He’s the youngest mayor of a sizable city in Washington State history. “If I can leverage my age to spotlight some progressive things” so much the better, Larson says. “I think the biggest thing we’ve faced is a lack of vision. I want to change that.”

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