'We have a geriatric problem' - Democrats wrestle with age-old issue
For 33 years, Congressman Jim Clyburn's "world famous fish fry" has been a must-attend event for members of the Democratic Party hoping to make a splash on the national stage. But after a blistering electoral defeat and with an aging old guard, some are wondering if it's time for the party to make some new traditions.
It was just over five years ago here in South Carolina, that the then-79-year-old Clyburn, a Democratic kingmaker in the state, gave the then-77-year-old Joe Biden his highly coveted presidential endorsement. His past picks – like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton – have all won the party's nomination, if not the White House.
Clyburn's endorsement of Biden is widely regarded as helping the former vice-president win South Carolina's primary and turn the tide in his struggling campaign. Since then, Democrats have had to re-evaluate their choice for the aging Biden – who grudgingly abandoned his re-election bid last year amid a rising din of questions about his competency.
After his successor, Vice-President Kamala Harris, lost to Donald Trump, many wondered if he had hung on too long. Then last month, Biden announced he had stage 4 prostate cancer, a condition with a grim prognosis that would have presented a national crisis if he had managed to win re-election.
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Now many within the party, including some of those dining on fried fish and white bread at Clyburn's gathering last Friday, are wondering if it's time the party found new blood - especially after three congressional Democrats died in office this year alone. The losses meant that the Republicans' slim majority in Congress was bolstered, allowing them to pass Trump's controversial spending bill by a single vote.
"We have a geriatric problem," said Ashley McIntyre Stewart, specifically noting the recent House spending bill. "We need to get the younger community involved so that we don't have the Republicans railroad us."
According to a survey last month by Axios, more than half of the 30 Democrats in the House over age 75 are planning to seek re-election next year, including Clyburn, whose term would end when he is 88 if he wins.
The veteran politician scoffed at the idea of retiring.
"I will respond to the voters of South Carolina," he told media who were at the fish fry. "I've been with them all month, and not a single one of them said to me that they think I'm too old. Every one of them said to me, please don't leave."
He also bristled at the second-guessing over whether Biden should have stepped aside earlier, saying that his children and grandchildren don't care about the former president's choice.
"They're going to ask me what did you do to make sure I got a better life," he said. "That's all I'm concentrating on."
Democratic voters have tended to accept the risks that come with electing older politicians to office, prioritising governing experience over youth and vitality. In 2024, only two Democratic incumbents in Congress lost their party's nomination, and both – Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman of New York – were relative newcomers under the age of 50.
Republicans have their own crop of elderly politicians too, including the 78 year-old president. But 2020's electoral battering and Biden's health revelations have caused some introspection.
William Godwin, a Democrat from Chicago, was visiting South Carolina and stopped by the fish fry to see Clyburn and hear from the two Democratic governors, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Wes Moore of Maryland, invited to speak. He said he respected the wisdom of elderly politicians like Clyburn and Biden, but his party needed a youth movement.
"We need the activists," he said. "We need the energy from a variety of different backgrounds - not just age - to really come put our hands together and work toward getting some real elections won."
There are signs some young upstarts are taking heed: Saikat Chakrabarti, the 39-year-old former chief of staff to Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is challenging former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her San Francisco Congressional primary. Jake Rakov, 37, is going after the seat of his former boss, 15-term incumbent Rep Brad Sherman, 70.
Voters are craving "new ideas and new energy to get Congress to actually work again," he told a local news outlet, the Bay Area Reporter, in April.
At the fish fry, winning elections after last year's disappointment and the challenges of Trump's aggressive second term agenda were the focus of speeches from two Democratic governors, who are also potential 2028 presidential hopefuls.
Walz, the 61-year-old who was his party's vice-presidential nominee last year, may not exactly be a fresh face some in the party are looking for, although he received a warm reception from the South Carolina audience. Maryland's Moore – a 46-year-old military veteran who is only the third black governor in US history – generated the most animated response, as he spoke about the "baton" being in his generation's hands.
"We're about to send a message the entire country is going to hear," he said. "This is our time. This is our moment. We will not shirk, we will not flinch, we will not blink. We will win, just as those who came before us did."
Democrats may have won in the past, but last year's defeat was particularly stinging – and Trump's first months back in power have put the party in a deep hole, with years' worth of work needed to rebuild Democrat-backed government programmes and replenish worker rolls that have been slashed by the Republicans.
"I gave Donald Trump credit for this," Walz said. "He moves so quickly and so fast for bad things, we better be ready to move quickly and fast for good things."
Walz said that Democrats needed to have "tough conversations" about how to win back the voters who flipped to Trump last year.
In a few years, South Carolina will once again be a pivotal battleground in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination. The kind of candidate who comes out on top will be determined in part by the conversations – including how to balance age and experience with youth and energy - happening at this fish fry and in other Democratic gatherings across the country in the days ahead.
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