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This was a significant week in the debate about aging politicians.
The 84-year-old Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) returned to the Senate on Monday for the first time since he was hospitalized for a fall on June 14, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the oldest member of Congress, turned 93 yesterday. Both are powerful figures in the Senate. McConnell once led the chamber until he stepped down from Republican leadership in 2024. And Grassley wields a great deal of influence as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
McConnell is retiring at the end of this Congress, but both men have made it clear they believe they are fit to serve.
Not everyone agrees. Polls in recent years have consistently found Americans are concerned about the average age of their politicians, and voters increasingly support some sort of check on elderly leaders - be it term limits, age limits or mental competency tests.
In 2022, for instance, 58 percent of Americans told YouGov they supported a maximum age for elected officials. Just one year later, 81 percent of respondents told YouGov they support age limits for Congress, a figure that has held steady, with an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll from May finding 8 in 10 Americans support age caps for Congress. Similar percentages of Americans have expressed support for age limits for the presidency, as well.
These results appear to be driven in part by health and acuity concerns about former president Joe Biden - the oldest president at 82 when he left office - and scrutiny about President Donald Trump, 80, who is on his way to narrowly taking the title of oldest president. And by Congress, where there are more age 70-plus lawmakers than ever before.
"I think a lot of people have members of their family in their life that are that age and love them dearly, but don't necessarily believe that that elderly person in their family should be president of the United States," said elections analyst Nathan L. Gonzales, who has written in favor of age maximums for Congress. "People have seen a handful of politicians in their elderly years and I think believe that there's got to be a better way."
Gonzalez suggests that introducing a maximum age for Congress is a good way to introduce "fresh voices in the system," in addition to ensuring "we have members who are operating in the prime of their life."
Though lawmakers are generally cool on the idea of age maximums, many do back the idea of term limits.
In a statement to the Early Brief, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) decried "permanently entrenched politicians," who he said are not in line with the "government of citizen legislators" the Founding Fathers envisioned.
Cruz and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina) partnered to introduce a constitutional amendment establishing term limits for members of Congress last year, and have introduced similar amendments in the 115th, 116th, 117th and 118th Congresses as well.
"Term limits would bring accountability to Washington, and I remain committed to enacting them," Cruz said.
In its most recent incarnation, the amendment had 115 co-sponsors in the House and 19 in the Senate, but appears likely to die on the vine, as past versions have, after being referred to the chambers' respective judiciary committees. Bills must be passed before the end of each Congress or else they expire. While some politicians argue age is just a number, bills aren't extended the same courtesy.
Grassley and McConnell's offices did not comment when asked about calls for limiting service, but McConnell's public statements give us a sense of how he likely thinks about the issue.
"We have term limits now," McConnell told reporters last year. "They're called elections."
(COMMENT, BELOW)