Representative James E. Clyburn, the South Carolina power broker, is running for his 18th term at age 85.Credit...Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press
Representative David Scott, the 80-year-old Democrat from Georgia, has not spoken on the House floor for more than two years. But when it came time in March to file for re-election for what would be his 13th term, he was among the first in line at the State Capitol, sitting in a wheelchair maneuvered by an aide.
Representative Al Green, 78, Democrat of Texas, generated headlines last year when he rose from his seat and shook his cane as he heckled President Trump during an address to a joint session of Congress. He, too, is seeking re-election after more than two decades in Congress.
And though the former top two Democratic leaders in the House, Representatives
Nancy Pelosi of California and
Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, both octogenarians, are leaving Congress after this year, their longtime No. 3, Representative James E. Clyburn, the South Carolina power broker,
is running for his 18th term at age 85.
Across the country, many aging Democratic members of Congress are stepping aside, heeding calls for generational change that have grown only louder since the party revolt that ultimately prompted President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to
drop his re-election bid in 2024 at age 81.
But among the party’s most senior Black lawmakers, a different pattern has taken hold. Many are staying put and defiantly rejecting calls to retire, complicating the age debate and frustrating some activists who are eager for
a younger crop of leaders to rise. Some of the lawmakers have argued that in a nation that denied Black citizens the right to vote or represent their communities for generations, they should not be forced to relinquish the seniority and power they have amassed in Congress simply because of the date on their birth certificate.
“When did Steny Hoyer come to Congress?” Mr. Clyburn said during a recent interview. “He came 10 or 12 years before I did. When did Nancy Pelosi come to Congress? She came six years before I did. So why am I held to a different standard?”
The disconnect gets at a bigger and more complicated debate hanging over American politics: Who holds power in this country, and who has to give it up?
Many Black lawmakers can trace their arrival on Capitol Hill to the early 1990s, when they were elected after redistricting changes tied to the Voting Rights Act created more opportunities for minority communities to be represented by a person of color, a path that had long been blocked. With a new census showing a diversifying country, President Bill Clinton and others built a multiracial coalition that would become the bedrock of Democratic politics for a generation.
“We all got elected the same year in 1992, because it was impossible for us to get elected in the South before that,” Mr. Clyburn said.
Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, and Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi. Ms. Pelosi, 86, is leaving Congress after this year, but Mr. Thompson, 78, is on track to be re-elected to his seat.Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
Decades later, he is far from the only powerful Black Democrat who has resisted the pressure to step down. In Mississippi, Representative Bennie Thompson, the 78-year-old ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee,
defeated a primary challenger more than 30 years younger; he is now on track to win re-election after more than three decades in Congress. Representative Maxine Waters, at 87 the senior Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, is running for a 19th term representing her district in South Los Angeles. In Texas, Mr. Green is fighting to keep his seat
in a tight contest with a fellow Democratic member of Congress less than half his age.
“These are folks who, when they were younger, it was damn near impossible to get here because of racism in this country,” said Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Democrat from Florida who is Black and, at 29, the youngest member of Congress. “And then when they got here, they were told, ‘Wait your turn.’ They waited their turn, and now people are saying, ‘Get the hell out.’”
But those agitating for generational change argue that congressional Democrats’ longstanding policy of rewarding seniority — one that the Congressional Black Caucus has pressed to adhere to as a way of ensuring and preserving diversity in the party ranks — has crowded out capable candidates who are the future of the party.
“There is an incredible bench of young Black elected leaders with experience and community ties who are ready to rise,” said Amanda Litman, the leader of Run for Something, a progressive group that pushes young Democrats to run for office. “The idea that the current C.B.C. members are the only ones who could meet the moment is just not grounded in reality.”
She argued that ignoring calls for change risked alienating younger voters, particularly voters of color who expressed growing distrust of the Democratic Party.
“We are seeing in poll after poll that young voters, especially young voters of color, do not trust the Democratic Party as an institution — and these leaders represent that institution,” she said. “They may have had to fight their way to get into it, but at this moment, they are part of it. And young voters are saying, ‘We don’t trust you to deliver for us.’”
Several post-mortems of the 2024 election highlighted how Republicans managed to
build a far more diverse coalition than ever before and bested Democrats in motivating younger members of their base to vote. And there is evidence that voters see members of Congress as too old:
A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that overwhelming majorities of both political parties — 82 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of Democrats — favored maximum age limits for federal elected officials.
Ms. Waters and Mr. Green, who have easily won re-election year after year, both said their consistent victories were proof that voters had no issue with their age.
“I always believe that good, honest, hard work will get you the respect that you deserve,” Ms. Waters said in an interview. “I don’t care whether you are young or whether you are old. Your demonstrated care and concern for public policy shows up.”
Mr. Green said forcing out older members ignored the will of the people.
“I think that you pass the torch by allowing the voters to make a decision,” Mr. Green said in an interview. “Voters ultimately hold the torch.”
But beating an incumbent is difficult, and some senior Black Democrats have opted to relinquish their power, acknowledging that doing so might be the only way a younger candidate could succeed.
Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, 81, the first Black woman to represent New Jersey in Congress, announced in November that she would retire at the end of her sixth term, saying it was “time to pass the torch to the next leader who will continue leading this charge.”
Representative Danny K. Davis, the 84-year-old Democrat from Illinois who is retiring after three decades in Congress, said it was a “good time to try and usher in and help bring in new leadership.”
Those staying insist that supporting the next generation does not require their stepping down. Mr. Green pointed to younger staff members he had mentored, while Ms. Waters said she worked closely with emerging local leaders. Mr. Clyburn has a fellowship program aimed at developing the next generation of civic leaders from South Carolina.
They also argue they are still up to the job. Ms. Waters cited her continued activism around the country, including her appearance onstage last weekend at a “No Kings” rally in Los Angeles. Mr. Clyburn, who has spent his years in Washington and South Carolina establishing himself as a party kingmaker, remains a central figure for Democrats, traveling across the country fund-raising for candidates and drawing a crowd to his annual fish fry, where local and national Democrats court voters with stump speeches and their efforts to keep up with the Electric Slide on the dance floor.
“I do believe I’m very well equipped and healthy enough to move into the next term,” Mr. Clyburn said when he announced his re-election bid last month, adding that he planned to run a “vigorous” campaign.
But
younger challengers are seeking to tap into a profound voter sentiment in favor of turning over a new leaf. In a statement announcing her campaign to challenge Ms. Waters, Myla Rahman, 53, said “the status quo isn’t working” and bemoaned the “same leadership” being sent to Washington time after time while “costs rise and families fall behind.”
Some Black lawmakers who are in poorer health have faced far sharper questions about their capacity to continue to serve.
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Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, the 88-year-old nonvoting Washington delegate, is still serving in Congress, but is not seeking re-election.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, the 88-year-old Democrat and longtime nonvoting delegate for Washington, D.C., resisted calls to retire for more than a year before relenting after it became apparent her health challenges had sapped her ability to function in Congress. She is still serving, but is not seeking re-election.
Mr. Scott’s frail condition has become a focal point in his crowded primary. Once a forceful presence in both Washington and Atlanta, he has faced years of questions about his health and has not delivered a floor speech since December 2023. In December 2024, he was ousted from the influential role he held as the senior Democrat on the Agriculture Committee.
One of his primary challengers revealed that
Mr. Scott did not vote in the 2024 presidential election and that he had missed multiple local elections.
Mr. Scott declined requests for comment and did not respond to questions as he left the House chamber on a recent Friday with an aide who hurriedly guided his wheelchair into a nearby elevator.
“We are being disserved by an absent member of Congress who refuses to communicate and cannot do the job anymore,” Everton Blair, one of the Democrats running against Mr. Scott, said in an interview.
Mr. Blair said he still respected the work of some of the older Black leaders in the party, but he ultimately believed new voices were needed in Washington.
“We deserve intergenerational space at the table, and right now, it’s just disproportionately skewed toward one generation that has stayed in power for too long,” he said.
As he dives into his 18th re-election campaign, Mr. Clyburn is making the case that he is uniquely suited to the current political moment. His long career has been defined by issues such as voting rights and anti-discrimination, which are newly relevant as the Trump administration presses for voting restrictions and the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
“The same kinds of things they did in the 1870s to deny votes to African Americans is what they’re trying to do today,” Mr. Clyburn said. “We have got to start concentrating on what we can do to stop this deterioration taking place in our society, and stop arguing about how old or how young somebody is. It’s just a little bit silly to me.”
