Isiah James is a very tall man. At 6’8”, he has to stoop so he doesn’t hit his head as we exit the Q train on our way from his campaign office in Brooklyn to a farmers market, where Teen Vogue tagging along as he spends the day canvassing prospective voters with a squad of volunteers.

His height, while notable, is hardly the only thing that makes him stand out as a congressional candidate. Running for a seat in U.S. House of Representatives from New York’s 9th district, James is challenging a seven-year incumbent in a race he’s eager to frame as a struggle between ineffective representation and a politics based on change. James shares that it was actually a meeting with the 9th district’s current congresswoman, Yvette Clarke, that convinced him to run after he was disappointed with her response to the issues he raised.

“I went home that night and I told my wife and she was like, ‘Well, do something about it,’” James says of the meeting with Clarke. “That night, I sat there, two o'clock in the morning, racking my brain on what I could do.”

“I Googled how to run for Congress, watched a bunch of YouTube videos, and figured out the process of becoming a congressional candidate,” he continues. “I told my best friend from college. And we met in a Dunkin Donuts, and he encouraged me, as well, to do it. And here I am, a candidate for Congress.”

James shows off a campaign poster. Lucy Diavolo

This DIY approach to learning how to run for Congress is emblematic of his entire campaign. James’s run is all about taking direct action to address his frustration with the status quo.

“Something has to change. And the things that we have done and the [political] representation that we have had has led us to this point,” James tells Teen Vogue in an interview at his campaign headquarters, a single-room office. “We're not in a good space in this country.”

While his political education might sound a little new school, he’s relying on old school tactics. Watching James talk to visitors at the farmers market on a stunningly bright but bitterly cold Saturday morning in Brooklyn, you get a sense of his support for core progressive issues. He’s big on affordable housing — no surprise given how dramatically Brooklyn’s housing market has shifted in recent years. He’s committed to not taking money from real estate developers during his campaign.