Earlier this year, Gary Peters made a completely ordinary decision: He will retire. Except that Peters happens to be a U.S. Senator, so the news that he announced that he would not seek a third term next year was shocking. “Oh, but you are still very young!Michigan Democrat recalled.
When members of a swing state hang it in their Senate elements (the median age of the Chamber of Commerce is nearly 65), they are usually disappointed and even panic. After all, open seats are difficult to defend, and early departures are seen as a vote without confidence. But many in the party greeted the recent wave of retirement with unusual responses: appreciation and relief.
Smith told me that people have been stopping at the airport to thank her for leaving: I like the role model you setthey have told her. She welcomes gratitude, but it underscores the disturbing dynamics of her party: many Democrats can’t wait to see their leaders go out.
Nationwide, Democrats have been quarreling for the past few months how to deal with President Donald Trump’s second power grab and win voters who defected or stayed at home last fall. They don't seem to make much progress. Even if the president's popularity has dropped, their people have also fallen: Two recent polls have found the party's preference scores in record lows. "We don't have as strong relationships with the constituents we think of our base as we thought," Smith told me. "It's like a bad marriage."
Most Democrats blame their party’s message. But many progressives believe that the bigger problem is its ancient and touching messengers, who are becoming more active in pushing senior lawmakers to do what Joe Biden does, when they are moving forward or at least still with it.
These progressives have received some good news this year. In addition to Peters and Smith, two other Senate Democrats - Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, 78 and Dick Durbin of Illinois, 80, have also announced plans to leave after next year. “I think this is an opportunity for a full-scale change for the entire Democratic Party,” Amanda Litman, president and campaign co-founder, told me. “Part of the way we change people’s perception of the Democratic Party is to change the people who run as Democratic Party.”
Litman calls on every Democrat in Congress over 70 to “appoint it as its last term.” She told me that Biden failed to temporarily abandon it as soon as possible, laying the foundation for the current struggle of the party. "It really hurts the Democratic brand," she said. "He can't sell the good things he's doing."
The Democratic Party’s age issue is not limited to Biden. In California, Senator Dianne Feinstein ran his sixth term at the age of 85, and dropped significantly after re-election. She refused to call for more and more quit and died in the office in 2023. Five House Democrats have died during their tenure over the past 13 months. Gerry Connolly, a ranking member of the party’s oversight committee and Virginia representative, recently announced that he would leave the position in a few months due to the recurrence of cancer. Republicans also have problems. Trump, 78, surpassed Biden, the oldest man in a presidency ever, and a Texas publication last year found that the state's longest Republican member, Representative Kay Granger, lives in assisted living facilities and suffers from dementia. She served as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee just a few months ago.
Last month, a group founded by David Hogg, the newly elected vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, announced plans to spend $20 million to support the main challenger against "tactile, ineffective" Democrats. The effort has angered many in the party, who fear Hogg will have a chance to regain the House majority next year by targeting incumbents in competitive areas. He agreed not. He also said the initiative is not strictly related to age. "Some of the people we're looking at are older. But unfortunately, sucking is not limited to people over a certain age." "It's not as simple as it is said, Oh, you're over 70 and you need to leave. ”
The party's most dynamic 80s, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attracted a large crowd at the rally. Hogg and Litman praised Sanders for their confrontation with Trump and announced last week that they would work with him to recruit young progressive candidates. But even Letterman said his decision to run for the Senate last year “people should be more angry.”
As Hogg saw, the main problem for Democrats was the shortage of passion. "Overall, we need to do more to show people how we fight back," he told me, evaluating Democrats' first 100-plus days in the Trump opposition. "We lack energy. I think our energy is the same as it was after 2016. A lot of people feel burned and too many members of Congress are not satisfied at this moment."
So far, Hogg's more specific to the Democrats no The targets are more than him. (For example, thirty former House leaders of the eighty-year-olds will be retained: Nancy Pelosi, Steney Hoyer and Jim Cleben.) That's part of the strategy; Hogg wants to lure some older incumbents out of their seats themselves. "We're waiting to see who retires," he said. "Ideally, we don't have to compete with any Dems. But, I think it's clear that it's going to be necessary."
The Democrats rely on qualifications to assign the highest positions to their members, far exceeding Republicans. Especially for non-white Democrats, longevity has historically been the only way to accumulate power, and members of the Black Caucus of Congress have been some of the biggest defenders of the qualification system. Senior legislators, especially those in elected safe seats, occasionally say as if they think Congress is a lifetime appointment. "What do you want - I give up my life?" Clayburn asked reporters this Wall Street Journal Recently, the topic of retirement has emerged.
Peters and Smith attribute their decision to personal reasons rather than to push for generations of change within the party. "When you're 68, you'll consider that the next 10 years of life are different from 58 or 48 or 38," Smith said. However, both Democrats admit they've been holding on for too long. "I never felt like these jobs should be where you just camped," Smith said.
Litman celebrates the retirement announcements of older Democrats and encourages others to follow their leadership. "They are receiving messages," she said. Not everyone has it. In the Senate, two mid-70s Democrats — Jack Reed of Rhode Island and John Hickenlooper of Colorado — announced they were seeking a new six-year term. The same goes for Sen. Ed Markey, 78, of Massachusetts.
In the House, Connolly and 80-year-old progressive Jan Schakowsky announced his retirement. But too many other Democrats are still in trouble, Litman said. Last week, the AOC said she would no longer bid as the top spot on the oversight committee. (Connolly defeated her last fall and is now supporting a 70-year-old rep as his backup.) It’s clear that “the basic dynamics of the core group have not changed”. "It's really disappointing," Litman told me. “If you decide that the way we do things yesterday is not necessarily the way we do things tomorrow, there is too much freedom.”