Venezuela, a nation that has recently been making headlines for keeping its photogenic opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez jailed, is known for its obsession with beauty.

The country has, in the last three decades, won more beauty titles than any other. Considering this, it is little wonder that this world of superficial spectacle would have a promising place in Venezuelan politics.

Jesus Casanova, a 26-year-old who was crowned Mister Venezuela last year, is running for a seat in congress.

For the ruling party Casanova just might be the wave of the future. As it turns out there are a slew of young media personalities (including athletes, hip-hop performers, as well as TV stars) currently competing in primaries to select socialist party candidates for the upcoming legislative elections.

"People want to see young, new faces, new projects and fresh ideas," Casanova explained to The Associated Press.

President Nicolas Maduro’s party will need all the young new faces it can get. Aside from massive inflation, the country is being stressed by food and medical shortages.

In an effort to deal with the lack of medicine pharmaceutical companies have recently planned, according to USA Today report, to set up a registry listing patients that have died due to a lack of drugs.

Because of this, the United Socialist Party, which understands it has to change its strategy with voters, has now mandated that half of its candidates be under the age of 30. Meanwhile, the opposition party is taking a similar course of action as a third of the candidates in its own primaries were under the age of 40.

Casanova, who is called the "The Triton of Sabaneta," says from a young age he has desired to enter politics in order to defend the poor, and understands that his celebrity is allowing this to become a reality. "I always wanted to make this step but I never imagined it could be such a big one or happen so quickly," says Casanova.

"Winning Mister Venezuela allowed me to occupy a space that nobody of my political ideology could have won."