Eight Democratic senators voted with the Republicans to end the government shutdown and unleashed the annoyance of the youngest members of the party.
Mexico City, November 11 (However).– The journalist Reid J. Epstein begins his text like this: “The unity and good atmosphere that reigned among the democrats After their great electoral victories they lasted less than a week. Now, knives are back in the crosshairs.”
Ocho Democratic senatorswith an average age of about 70 years, voted with the republicans in favor of ending the 40-day government shutdown without obtaining the health concessions they had demanded from Donald Trump. And the younger ones are furious. The congressmen old people are demonstrating an offensive pragmatism: they vote “yes” to avoid getting into trouble, because they are simply leaving.
It is not clear whether the victory of Zohran Kwame Mamdani in New York, a 34-year-old migrant, can mark a trend within the Democrats.
“Democrats are still grappling with the fallout from Joe Biden’s calamitous decision to seek re-election at age 79. What has been less discussed are the consequences of having so many members of Congress who are of retirement age (or even well past it),” Epstein says in The New York Times. “And as liberal voters have just discovered, it’s much easier to vote for something your base hates if you’re too old to care about re-election.”
In the United States, congressmen can be re-elected infinitely. In December 2024, Gerry Connolly died, aged 75. Since November 2022, nine congressmen have died, all Democrats, with the same average age. In 2026, many young politicians will face off in the Democratic primaries. Their enemy is not Trump: they are the old men clinging to power. And those who remain in office at a very advanced age are interfering in the regeneration of their battered force.
Of the pro-Democratic senators who voted in favor of the deal to avoid a government shutdown, two will not run for re-election: Dick Durbin of Illinois, 80, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, 78. Angus King of Maine is 81, and Jacky Rosen of Nevada is 68. Both Tim Kaine of Virginia and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire are 67. All of them would be over 70 years old if they decided to run again at the end of their terms.
The other “yes” votes were from Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, 61, who represents a state where the Las Vegas tourism industry feared it would be hit hard by canceled flights, and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who is only 56 years old but has already alienated much of his party by supporting Trump on a number of issues.
Amanda Litman, leader of Run for Somethingcalls it by its name: “Gerontocracy.” In an interview with the journalist, he says that “that is the problem with gerontocracy. When you have older leaders who will never face re-election, you make decisions that do not reflect the beliefs of their voters.” However, the reporter adds, it is likely that the issue of age will continue to generate controversy. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s three preferred candidates for the midterm elections are Janet Mills, 77, in Maine; Sherrod Brown, 73, in Ohio; and Roy Cooper, 68, in North Carolina. Each of them would be over 80 years old at the end of a second term.
In 2023, the United States Senate was already the oldest in history, according to Univision. Two out of every three US senators were well over the age of 62, the average age at which workers in that country said they would retire in 2022, according to the latest Retirement Confidence Survey, prepared annually by the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI). The health problems of Senator Dianne Feinstein, who died that year at the age of 90, or the two episodes of paralysis of Senator Mitch McConnell while speaking to journalists, meant that the exercise of their work as senators was questioned again and again due to their advanced age.
Gerontocracy is not exclusive to the US Senate, as is known: Joe Biden held the title of the oldest presidential candidate, at 78 years old.
The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate on Monday night approved a spending package to end the record-long government shutdown, with Democrats providing enough votes to see the measure through. The legislation passed with a vote of 60 to 40 with those eight Democrats joining nearly all Republicans in supporting the bill.
The legislative package now goes to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives for a final vote, possibly on Wednesday, and will then be sent to President Trump’s desk. House Republicans are expected to support the bill, which also has the backing of the White House.
Final approval in the Senate came less than 24 hours after a dramatic procedural vote Sunday night, in which the same eight Democrats broke with their party to approve the measure 60-40, meeting just the 60-vote threshold needed for passage under the Senate’s filibuster rule. In the final vote Monday night, only a simple majority was required.