Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

We Need Younger Senate Candidates

Ancient nominees for office are likely worsening the legislature’s other problems.

October 30, 2018 at 11:30 AM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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With elections coming next week, time for one of my hobbyhorses: If there’s one seemingly minor development in U.S. politics that I really dislike and don’t understand, it’s that both parties have inexplicably taken to nominating old Senate candidates.

Take this year. The 14 people most likely to be new senators? Their average age, come January, will be 58. There are as many candidates born in the 1940s (Utah’s Mitt Romney and Tennessee’s Phil Bredesen) as there are born in the 1970s (Missouri’s Josh Hawley and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema). Half of them are over 60, meaning they’ll be at least 66 when the term they’re running for expires.