A broad bipartisan majority of Americans say Congress is too old and back rules to limit both age and tenure. An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found roughly eight in 10 respondents favor imposing maximum ages for members of Congress and instituting term limits, with support cutting across party and demographic lines: 78% of Democrats backed both age caps and term limits, 83% of Republicans supported maximum age limits, and nearly nine in 10 Republicans favored term limits.
The findings reflect growing skepticism about very long tenures in office. Jean Twenge, a psychology professor who studies generational differences, noted that longer life expectancy and later retirement have prompted questions about whether older officeholders should remain indefinitely. “People can be in office longer, but should they?” she asked, adding that similar levels of support for limits among younger and older voters suggest a broad appetite for change. “There seems to be a consensus that people think if you’re going to be an effective leader, you should not be 80 years old,” she said.
Poll details
The survey reached 1,322 respondents from April 27 to April 30 by live caller, text and online; the margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Why voters want change
Concerns about age have grown as attention has focused on presidents and top lawmakers who are in their late 70s and 80s. Recent presidencies and the advanced ages of some congressional leaders have sparked public questions about fitness for office. On Capitol Hill, many prominent figures are in their 70s, 80s and 90s — for example, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is 75 and Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, is 92.
Members of Congress are considerably older than the general workforce: the median age of U.S. workers is 42, while the median age of House members is 58 and senators is 65. This Congress is the third-oldest in U.S. history and has seen five members die since last March; each was at least 65.
Some voters say the age gap fuels a sense that leaders are out of touch. “I feel that they just might be out of touch. You’ve got 70 and 80-year-olds in Congress … running the country,” said 18-year-old Michael Hatch of Eudora, Kansas, expressing a common sentiment among younger Americans that their interests are underrepresented. A separate AlphaROC survey of 18- to 29-year-olds, shared with NPR, found more than six in 10 believe politicians do not represent people their age, and many respondents said younger candidates are not taken seriously.
Support across generations
Support for both term limits and age maximums was strong across age groups, with Generation X showing the highest backing. Patricia, a 62-year-old Democratic voter in Phoenix, said younger adults’ struggles with affordability and housing require younger voices in policymaking: “We have to have those voices in the room,” she said, adding that dismissing young people over age contributes to their political disengagement.
Although neither age limits nor term limits are currently being seriously considered by Congress, the poll indicates broad public appetite for mechanisms that would limit how long lawmakers serve and set maximum ages for holding office.