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Hi, y’all. Welcome back to The Opposition. Baby boomers have long held an iron grip on Democratic politics. But there’s a generational shift starting to happen within the party, as elderly leaders are finally starting to make way for Gen Xers and Millennials.
I know a lot of you have strong opinions about ushering in a new generation of Democratic leadership, and I’d love to hear from you in the comments. But for that you’ve got to be a Bulwark+ member. Now’s a great time to join, since we’ve got our 30-day free deal going. Sign up today, hop into the comments, and enjoy all our other locked Bulwark+ content. I bet you’ll like what you see here.
–Lauren
The Democratic Youth (er, Young Adult) Movement Arrives
Plus: Why the redistricting wars probably won’t end any time soon.
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EVEN WELL BEFORE THE 2024 ELECTIONS, Democrats were spending a significant amount of time fretting over the party’s aging leadership. For good reason.
Joe Biden’s age and the party’s initial reluctance to acknowledge the limitations of someone in their eighties laid the groundwork for the party’s midsummer implosion and Donald Trump’s reclamation of power.
Once the election was over, the problem became—somehow—even more acute. Three Democratic members of Congress have died since March (Reps. Gerry Connolly, 75; Sylvester Turner, 70; and Raúl Grijalva, 77), giving Republicans an easier path to advance President Trump’s legislative agenda. Senate Democrats, many of them well past 60, copped to having little understanding of how social media and algorithms shape modern politics, turning to Cory Booker to guide them. Even the party’s base voters think their leaders are too old and weak, especially as the youngest voters, once thought of as reliably liberal, are trending more conservative.
For months, Democrats have grappled with the consequences of aging in office and debated how aggressively the party should act to get older leaders to step aside.
And yet, over time, the issue has begun to resolve itself, either naturally or through strategic decision-making within the ranks. Democrats may still have the aura of geriatrics and a brand that seems painfully out of touch with younger voters. But a change is actually well underway.
Just about everywhere you look in the Democratic party right now—from state houses to Capitol Hill—a new generation of leaders is emerging.
Take, for example, Sen. Brian Schatz. The 52-year-old Hawaiian has locked down his colleagues’ support to be the next party whip after Sen. Dick Durbin retires next year, which would make him the youngest person to be chosen for the No. 2 Democratic leadership position in fifty years. In Texas, James Talarico—a 36-year-old state representative who got the attention of Joe Rogan earlier this year for his viral TikTok videos—has become the de facto face of the Democrats’ resistance to the GOP gerrymandering spree.
On the Hill, graybeards still dominate. As Punchbowl noted: “eight of the 10 longest-serving House members are Democrats” while “fifteen out of the top 20,” and “24 out of the top 30 are Democrats.”
But the up-and-comers aren’t just sitting idly by. Senator Elissa Slotkin, 49, has been a regular presence in the public eye, to a degree that not so long ago would have been considered a faux pas from a freshman senator. Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, 37, has even proposed creating standards that would prevent older lawmakers from serving once they are no longer able to do the basic duties of the job. And earlier this summer, Democrats elected California Rep. Robert Garcia, 47, as their leader on the powerful House Oversight Committee—marking a dramatic shift from just a few months ago after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 35, lost her bid to Connolly, who died shortly after of esophageal cancer.
“There is such a frustration with Democratic party leadership and with the old guard,” said Amanda Litman, the cofounder of Run for Something, a progressive group that recruits and trains first-time candidates (Talarico is an alum of the program), arguing that the party’