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Cassandra Levesque

Cassandra Levesque (born c. 1999) is an American politician in the state of New Hampshire. She has been a Democratic member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives since 2018, representing the Strafford 4 district.^[1] Levesque has contributed to efforts to eliminate child marriage in New Hampshire.

Levesque became a Girl Scout when she was five years old. She began researching child marriage as a project for the program's Gold Award. Levesque worked with her state Representative, Jackie Cilley, to draft a bill that would eliminate provisions allowing minors to marry with judicial and parental consent. The state House of Representatives voted against the bill's passage.^[2][3] Despite the bill's failure, other legislation sponsored by Cilley passed which raised the minimum age for marriage from 13 to 16.^[2] Levesque said she would continue to advocate for the minimum marriage age to be raised to 18.^[4][5]

When both incumbents from the Strafford 4 district, Cilley and Len Turcotte, decided to retire, local Democrats convinced Levesque to run in the 2018 election.^[2] Levesque was elected on a campaign of representing small businesses and addressing water-quality issues.^[6] At 19, she became the youngest serving member of New Hampshire's legislature.^[7] Levesque has continued to press the issue of child marriage in the legislature.^[6]

• List of the youngest state legislators in the United States