Officeholders’ age is a recurring issue in the 2024 election cycle, from the presidential race on down. Some North Dakota residents want to take the issue off the table by setting a maximum age to hold public office.
A proposed amendment to the state constitution would bar anyone older than 80 from representing the state in Congress. Supporters, led by Jared Hendrix, a North Dakota Republican political operative, are now collecting signatures to get the measure on a forthcoming ballot.
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The proposed amendment includes a nod to an expected legal challenge should voters approve it. In the event that courts block the maximum age limit for officeholders, “ballot advisory” language would kick in. Next to the names of congressional candidates would be listed how old they would be at the end of the terms they were seeking — two for House members and six for senators.
Supporters want the ballot measure to appear on the June 2024 primary ballot rather than the general election in November. Hendrix and his allies have until Feb. 12 to turn in about 31,200 signatures, which would be about 4% of the state's population.
The effort doesn’t seem aimed at specific North Dakota lawmakers. Sens. John Hoeven (R-ND) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) are 66 and 62, respectively. While the Peace Garden State’s lone House member, Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), is 46. But it comes amid concerns and waves of news stories about when is too old to continue in public office.
President Joe Biden’s Age Predicament
Age is arguably President Joe Biden's biggest obstacle heading into the 2024 election cycle. If reelected, Biden would be 86 by the end of a second term.
He is already the oldest person ever to be president. The former senator and vice president was 78 when he was sworn in as president in January 2021. Biden’s expected GOP challenger in 2024, former President Donald Trump, is only slightly younger at 77.
A recent poll found broad concern over Biden’s age as he seeks a second term in the White House, with 7 in 10 responding that he is too old to be president, including nearly half of Democrats. The poll, from JL Partners/DailyMail.com, found 49% of Democrats said Biden is too old to be president, while 28% believed he is the right age, and 23% replied they were unsure.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has been the most vocal 2024 Republican presidential hopeful about Biden’s age. Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for nearly two years during Trump’s administration, frequently raises the prospect of Vice President Kamala Harris inheriting the top spot.
“Everyone in America can see Joe Biden’s decline and have concerns about his ability to serve a second term,” Haley posted to X on Aug. 25. “They know a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris. The media needs to stop protecting Biden and tell America the truth.”
Haley, 51, said in February that politicians over the age of 75 should have to take mandatory mental competency tests.
Senate Senior Citizens' Health Increasingly in Question
Age is a recurring issue on Capitol Hill, as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) finishes out the final 15 months-plus in the Senate seat she first won in 1992. Feinstein, 90, in late July, appeared confused at a Senate Judiciary Committee session when asked to vote on a pending piece of legislation.
Earlier this year, Feinstein was absent for more than two months due to a bout with shingles. With Democrats holding a slender 51-49 majority, Feinstein’s absence temporarily stalled confirmations of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees. Feinstein returned to the Senate in May, using a wheelchair, after recovering from encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that can be a dangerous complication of shingles.
Feinstein’s staff has tried to shield her from contact with reporters, but that only goes so far in Congress, where there’s a strong tradition of free and open press access. Nor is that approach unprecedented, as the late Sen. Strom Thurmond stayed in office until age 99, capping off more than 47 years as a senator. In Thurmond’s latter Senate years before retiring in January 2003 (a few months before his death), he was escorted around the Capitol by aides, who at times even whispered into his ear how to vote.
Questions about how old is too old to remain in office in 2023 have taken on a bipartisan tinge. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 81, on Aug. 30 paused for roughly 30 seconds during a press availability in Kentucky. It happened a little more than a month after a similar episode in the Capitol in late July.
McConnell's office attributed both episodes to lightheadedness, adding he would soon consult with a physician as a precautionary measure. The next day Congress's attending physician cleared McConnell, first elected to the Senate in 1984, to continue his work schedule "as planned."
Still, that did little to tamp down criticism of an emerging gerontocracy.
"Severe aging health issues and/or mental health incompetence in our nation’s leaders MUST be addressed," Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), 49, posted on X.
She then criticized the friends and family of McConnell and other politicians, saying they should be "ashamed" for "enabling and allowing" these people to remain in office.
"We are talking about our country’s national security and it’s all at stake!" she added.
Passing the Retirement Age Political Baton
Despite waves of unflattering news coverage about senior officeholders, it’s not clear voters care that much. The notion will be tested in 2024 as a scrum of Southern California candidates seeks to succeed retiring Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA), currently the oldest House member. Napolitano is set to retire from the 31st Congressional District at age 87 after 26 years in Congress.
The seat is virtually assured to stay in Democratic hands, as in 2020 Biden beat Trump there 65% to 33%. Napolitano has endorsed as her successor state Sen. Bob Archuleta, 78. Archuleta, an Army combat veteran and former paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, would be one of the oldest-ever House freshmen, at age 79.
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If Archuleta makes it to Congress, he’ll be in good company for his age set. In the 435-member House, 16 current House members, plus Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), are or will be age 80 or over when the next Congress convenes on Jan. 3, 2025. Each is expected to seek reelection in November 2024.
Democratic rivals of Archuleta for the open congressional seat are younger, to varying degrees — state Sen. Susan Rubio (age 52) and Citrus College trustee Mary Ann Lutz (age 63).