As funeral honors proceed for the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died earlier this month on the age of 71, the nationwide conversation round aging political figures has solely intensified.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, 84, has been sidelined from Hill votes since a June fall landed him within the hospital and he additionally contracted a “mild case” of pneumonia, in keeping with a latest assertion from his workplace after weeks of hypothesis.
The present Congress is among the many oldest in US historical past — a development that’s anticipated to speed up, particularly within the Senate. A majority of Americans see the scale of the over-70 caucus as a significant drawback and need to see extra transparency round elected officers’ well being, in keeping with a new NCS poll.
The midterm elections this November could possibly be an alternative for American voters to weigh in on the demographic make-up of Congress. Fifty-eight % of Americans within the newest NCS ballot, performed by SSRS, say that the present share of aged lawmakers serving in Congress poses a significant drawback. That rises to 68% amongst Americans youthful than 35.
The common age of senators and representatives has been on a gentle climb for many years.
The NCS ballot additionally finds a want for better transparency about elected officers’ well being extra broadly. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they assume elected officers should launch all medical data that may have an effect on their potential to serve, whereas simply 35% say they’ve the identical proper as each different citizen to maintain their medical data non-public.
That desire cuts throughout get together strains and seems to have grown in the previous few many years. In 2018, NCS polling discovered a near-even break up over whether or not presidents ought to disclose their medical data, and in 2004, 61% got here down on the aspect of privateness for these serving as president.
The NCS ballot finds that 70% of people that align with both main get together say they’d be uneasy or upset if their get together nominated somebody over the age of 70 for workplace. And a July Fox News Poll discovered that 85% of registered voters assume there must be a compulsory retirement age for lawmakers, with about half of these saying they’d want that required age be under 70.
In the present Congress, greater than a 3rd of senators are over the age of 70.
This November, 20 incumbent senators are vying to return for one more full time period. Their ages vary from 39 (Jon Ossoff of Georgia) to 83 (Jim Risch of Idaho), and if all of them win their seats, greater than half of them can be over 70 by 2033, the yr their subsequent potential time period would conclude. Notably, McConnell and Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, 81, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, 79, are retiring after this yr and are among the many oldest within the Senate whose seats are up this cycle.
While the everyday retirement age within the US sits squarely around 65, when many are eligible for federally funded medical insurance via Medicare, the over-age-65 inhabitants remains to be well-represented throughout each events in Congress.
Because the US Constitution requires that members of the House should be at the least 25 years of age or older, and the minimal age for senators is 30, Congress naturally skews older than the overall inhabitants.
While solely 19% of the overall US inhabitants is over age 65, in keeping with the Census Bureau’s 2025 information, the median age of at present sitting US senators is 66. That means whereas fewer than one in 5 Americans are over 65, about half of senators match into that class.
At 92, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa is the oldest member of the Senate, the place he serves because the president professional tempore. This function places him third in line to the presidency — a reality lately underscored when he was the highest-ranking administration official not in attendance on the May safety breach of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.