Few US politicians have lasted as long as Hal Rogers, who is seeking a 24th term in the House of Representatives at the November midterm elections. The 88-year-old Republican has represented Kentucky’s 5th congressional district since 1981, making him the longest-serving member of the House.
Rogers is far from the only senior figure in American politics who has stayed in office into their 80s. The article notes that President Donald Trump is 80, that Joe Biden left office at 82, and that Nancy Pelosi stepped down as the Democratic leader in the House at the same age. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, 93, is still serving.
Concern grows over age and health in Congress
The age and health of some politicians have caused widespread concern in both the Republican and Democratic parties. That has revived debate over whether age limits or health checks should be introduced.
Also read: Three key issues shaping the 2026 US midterm elections
The United States is often described as a “gerontocracy”, meaning a government run by people who are significantly older than most of the adult population. Congressional records cited in the article show that the lowest median ages in the House and Senate were recorded in the early 1980s, at 48 and 52 respectively.
Analysis by the Pew Research Center found that at the start of the current Congress, the average House member was 58 and the average senator was 65. The median age of a US citizen is 39.
Questions about health and mental acuity have also become more frequent. Biden’s age became a major issue while he was in office, and Trump has faced some questions too. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, 84, has faced increasing scrutiny after a months-long absence from Congress for medical treatment. Democrat Maxine Waters, 88, faces a leadership challenge as the lead Democrat on the powerful House Financial Services Committee, and some believe her age counts against her.
Why fewer young candidates reach Congress
Riley Owen, a 27-year-old Republican, is one of the few Gen Z candidates from either party running for Congress on 3 November. He is standing in a newly created Utah district that experts say may lean towards the Democrats. He has backed paid maternity leave, limits on congressional stock trading and environmental action, issues the article says may appeal to Democratic voters.
Owen describes the gerontocracy as “a bipartisan issue”. He argues that too many people become career politicians who spend their lives in Congress, which he says points to a system that is not delivering for Americans. He also said his generation is well placed to understand modern challenges, such as those posed by technology, and he pointed to his own experience as a military officer and a White House policy analyst.
Money is a major obstacle, Owen says. Research suggests campaign donors tend to favour incumbents. His rival, Democrat Ben McAdams, 51, has previously served in Congress, and by mid-October had raised over $2.6m (£1.9m), compared with $150,000 raised by Owen, according to records on the Federal Election Commission website.
The article also points to the age requirements written into the Constitution. Candidates must be 30 to serve as a senator and 25 to serve as a representative. Academic James Sloam of Royal Holloway, University of London, said disengagement among young people helps explain why they rarely run. “The one leads to another,” he said. “If you don’t have enough young people engaged in politics generally, then they won’t become representatives.”
Parenthood, turnout and a widening youth gap
Parenthood is another question for young people who win high-profile jobs. Over the summer, two young women working in Washington raised new doubts about whether the job can be combined with motherhood. Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 37, who took office at 29, announced she had started the process of freezing her eggs.
In the same week in August, Karoline Leavitt, 29, said she would leave the Trump administration, where she had been appointed the youngest White House press secretary, to spend more time with her family. She said she could not be the mother her two young children deserved while devoting the time required by the role. The article notes that the federal government, like many US employers, does not offer paid parental leave. Vice-President JD Vance, 42, recently said that having young children might influence his decision on whether to run for the White House in 2028: “We’ve got four little kids.”
Turnout tells a similar story. According to Pew, the share of non-voters who are aged 18 to 29 rose from 25% in the 2020 US election to 30% four years later. Pew also found that voters under 30 made up 20% of the voting-eligible population in 2024 but only 15% of the votes cast.
Campaigners say these trends matter because some issues go unaddressed. Grace Mausser, co-chair of the New York City wing of the Democratic Socialists of America, said: “Yes, that might result in older people being elected, but I think it really skews, too, what issues are important.” Her focus, she says, is less on age than on outlook. “You become so used to the language and the ideas of the political establishment that anything else … seem crazy.”
Gerontologist Tracey Gendron, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University whose research challenges the idea that ageing always means decline, put the debate simply. “Age alone is a very poor predictor of anything,” she said.
