- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/54121073
Incoming senators are nearly 15 years younger than departing ones, on average. But the chamber’s overall age isn’t shifting much.
Nov. 7, 2026Updated 3:17 p.m. ET
When the new Senate convenes in January, it will welcome some (relatively) young new legislators. A few are even millennials, including James Talarico of Texas, 37, and Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, 42, two Democrats who may have energized young voters to turn out.
But their effect on the average age of the Senate — which has crept up over the last few decades — will be small. The senators of the 120th Congress will be less than a year younger, on average, than the Senate’s current members were at the start of the 119th Congress two years ago. That’s because so many sitting senators are old, and getting older.
These numbers assume that Mary Peltola and Scott Colom will win their races in Alaska and Mississippi; they were both ahead in the vote count Saturday. (If both lose, the Senate’s average age will land at 63.6.)
You must log in or register to comment.
It really needs to be between 40 to 50. Every government in the world needs to be comprised of officials that are not just yet grandparents.
People young enough to see the consequences of their actions
Exactly. They should have to retire into the world they created with a reasonable expectation of ~20yrs in it.
Except they only retire when they die or become brain dead.
Don’t get me wrong, there are vital, amazing 80 and 90 year olds with more mental and even physical vitality than your average 60 year old, but we clearly have a problem in Washington DC.
Look at Feinstein and McConnell. That is clearly elder abuse, both cases. When someone hits cognitive decline, they’re not the same. They lose more of themselves each day and become vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation. There can be a distinct kicked puppy vibe, even if the person was an asshole while at full capacity. Kicked puppies look for help, for people to hide behind. And in DC, that means elder abuse, clearly.
So, since we have asshole congressmen, we need a mandated retirement age as a safeguard.
I wasn’t disagreeing, I was just pointing out “retirement age” means nothing to these people (and they want to eliminate retirement for everyone else too)*.
You do raise a very good point about elder abuse.
*(my editorial take)
Wouldn’t you feel such confidence in your healthcare if that were the case?
Doctors on canes and walkers. Nurses moving really slow, limping on bad hips and knees while they hobble that bag of blood to your bedside, or the IV med meant to slow your 175 heart rate, to push it into your vein with vibrating, shaky hands. Maybe they’ll make it there in time, but, shit, the new retirement age is 77. Maybe you’ll die, but at least we will have solved the social security problem…
Construction, another career hard on the body. Framing houses at 77? Do we want that? Electricians with bad eyes and the manual dexterity of someone with fat carrots for fingers? Sounds safe.
Again, there’s always that 90 year old with incredible energy running circles around the average 60 year old, even 40!year olds sometimes, but they exist on the tail of the bell curve, not the middle.
I didn’t say it was a good idea. It’s just what the billionaire class wants: to work you to death.
I dunno. At 55 I’m way more wise than I was at 40. Looking back, I was a very different person.
In any case, we have serious issues with some of these people. Chuck Grassley is 93 and Mitch (84) can’t even speak. OTOH, Bernie’s 85 and I’d hate to see him go.
Bernie should retire, too, if only to set an example. Find a good, young replacement and campaign for them.
So no Lauren Boebert?
Progress.
You kids with your skateboards and dungarees, next you’ll be telling us smoking is bad for you. Let the adults do their jobs. Why are my glasses in the icebox again? Which one of you bobby-soxers put them there!?
Jesus. How is it not lower? That’s awful. There should be a mandatory retirement age.
You have to be at least 30 to be in the Senate, but because its a much more prestigious office than Congress, most Senators were in Congress or something similar before making it to the Senate. This puts the younger senators being in their mid/late 30s and that’s not even super common. That tied with a Senate seat being 6 years, means you’re looking at the average being in the mid 40s even if people are elected relatively young.
If those senators win one re-election, they’d basically be in their 50s by the end of their second term.
Should we get more churn in the Senate, absolutely. However, I don’t think you’ll get it much lower than the mid 50s even with term limits, just due to the nature of the position. I think term limits would put upward pressure on the youngest voted in, but put more pressure downwards on the oldest voted in. So you would probably shrink the standard deviation, but only get the mean to mod/high 50s.
All great points. But I still believe in a mandated retirement age. Yes, some do well. Love Bernie. He’s one of the few that give a shit, and one of those vital elderly who will probably be running circles around 60 year olds at 90. But yes, even him, and he is. He’s in his last term.
Ginsberg tried. She was active. Even so, she died in office at 87. Scalia died in his sleep at 80.
Breyer was another one who exuded an energy and vitality, but he stepped down and made sure Biden appointed his replacement rather than lingering on. Guy will probably run circles around 60 year olds in his 90s. Even so.
Look at Feinstein. That was horrifying. I consider it elder abuse, and yet, our leadership was somehow allowed to engage in abject elder abuse and no one did a thing to stop it. Horrifying.
Biden. Clearly hitting Dimentia. The stare, late at night. This is a wax and wane condition. Inertia matters, and he was a career politician so sure, probably fine for a high percentage of the time, but fraying, slowly fraying as time progressed.
Do we even need to mention Trump? Deteriorating health, and a diagnosable personality disorder combined with cognitive decline. The anger side of it leans more towards Alzheimer’s but it’s hard to say. He’s clearly fraying too.
Mitch McConnell. Again. Elder abuse. Let the man go home.
I think we should have mandatory retirement. 75. A safeguard of sorts.
That’s fair, but I’m always hesitant for hard limits on things like this. If setting term limits didn’t resolve the issue I would reconsider.
With two term limits to get an 80 year old in the Senate they’d have to be elected for the first time as a 68 year old (I guess technically you could serve non-consecutive terms, but whatever).
In the case any of you were also wanting a refresh on what the difference between the mean, median, and mode is like I was
From dictionary dot com:
The mean is the number you get by dividing the sum of a set of values by the number of values in the set. This is what most people are referring to when they refer to the average of some set of numbers.
In contrast, the median is the middle number in a set of values when those values are arranged from smallest to largest.
The mode of a set of values is the most frequently repeated value in the set.
It’d be kind of interesting to see what the mode is for the American government is
It’s 75 with 6 senators.
Which is awful.
