Max Age for the House, Senate, and President?

The Constitution is very specific when it comes to the minimum age that a person must be to serve in Congress or in the White House. Article 1, Section 2, Clauses 2,3, and 5 state that No personal shall be a Representative/Senator/President if they have not attained the age of 25/30/35 (respectively). At the same time, there is no maximum age set. In the 1700’s, the idea of many elected officials living deep into their 80’s was likely a foreign concept. Thanks to a better understanding of science and health, coupled with advances in medicine, the average age of Congress generally has been on an upward trajectory since World War II. Our last two Presidents have also brought more attention to the age of our elected officials.

Overall, just a quarter of Americans feel that our current system of only having a minimum age is working well and would not support changing the Constitution, while a majority feel that the Constitution should be amended to set a maximum age as well. Among the roughly 75% who are supportive of a chance, we asked what age they feel should be the maximum for Congress, the US Senate, and the White House. On average, Americans are looking for a sliding scale for the three offices, similar to the minimum age, and are looking for the caps to be under the age of 70. Most Americans agree upon what a generally accepted age maximum would look like; however, there are some discrepancies within the specifics of the age range.

Demographic Differences

 The majority of Americans would like to see the age limit to be somewhere between 60 and 80, with only 12% choosing outside that for the president, and similar for the House (12%) and Senate (13%). Unsurprisingly, the age for the president had the most variation, with 38% choosing between 60-69 and 50% choosing between 70-80. The House and Senate had more similar results, with 42% for the House and 41% for the Senate choosing 60-69, and 46% for the House and 47% for the Senate choosing 70-80. It isn’t surprising that Americans are arguing for age restrictions on politics, with this year's average age of Congress members being one of the oldest ever. Even more pressing is that our past few presidents have been the oldest in history, with Donald Trump being the oldest to ever take office at 78, and Joe Biden close behind him (he was also 78 when he took office).

Different generations desired different limits, and unsurprisingly, the chosen age maximum increases with the age of the generation. Boomers choose the oldest age range, from about 68-70 for Congress and the Presidency, compared to Gen Z’s choice of the youngest age range, from about 61-63. Being the youngest generation, it makes sense that Gen Z would choose the youngest age range, and it will be interesting to see if they follow the trend of choosing an older age range as they grow older or if they’ll break away from the norm and stay true to their younger limit.

Another area where there was a lot of discrepancy was in race, with White respondents having the highest age range, 67-69, followed closely behind by Asian American respondents, 67-68. On the lower end of the spectrum, Black respondents chose an age range of 64-66, and Hispanic respondents chose the lowest age range of 62-64. There isn’t really a clear explanation for the root cause of this; this is just a noticeable trend in the data.

One interesting part of the data was the partisanship divide, or more specifically, the lack thereof. Democrats and Republicans alike chose incredibly similar age limits for the Senate and House, only differing in their opinions of the age limit of the presidency, which was still very close. Both Republicans and Democrats chose approximately 67 for their maximum age for the Senate and the House, differing by less than 0.05.

In regard to the presidency, Republicans chose a maximum of around 68, compared to Democrats who chose around 67, which, despite being a greater margin than Congress, is still a very small gap. Independents chose right in the middle of Republicans and Democrats for the presidency; however, they differed in their choices for the House and Senate, choosing fewer than both Democrats and Republicans. Still, the average desired age restrictions for Congress and the Presidency are very similar across all parties, indicating most Americans are separated in their opinions on age maximums due to other factors.

Also interesting was that there was little difference in gender regarding the age maximum, with both men and women choosing age maximums within roughly 0.5 points of one another. Men chose older age maximums for the Senate and the presidency, but women chose the older age maximum for the House. A possible conclusion for men choosing an older maximum for the presidency is that men tend to lean more Republican, and women tend to lean more Democratic, and the data has shown that Republicans chose the higher age maximum. As for the House and Senate, however, there is no clear discrepancy, probably because the average American can more easily pay attention to the age of a singular president rather than all of the members of Congress.

Another compelling finding in the data is that college-educated people chose higher age limits compared to non-college-educated people. College-educated respondents put the maximum age for the Presidency around 68, whereas non-college-educated respondents put the maximum age around 67. Non-college-educated respondents also put the maximum ages for the House and Senate lower than college-educated respondents, roughly 66 for non-college-educated versus 68 for college-educated. This pattern reflects the gap seen in the data about racial groups, education, and race, which have an impactful intersection in the United States, but there isn’t enough evidence to draw a strong conclusion. Ultimately, both findings indicate that while Americans do generally agree on an age range, the specific number they land on (within a tight band) appears to be shaped by personal, cultural, and demographic factors.

Conclusion

Ideas about restricting the ages of our elected officials have been getting increasingly more and more attention, and more Americans are starting to think about actually making changes to our system of government to add these limits. Most commonly talked about are our Presidents, who seemingly get older every election, but the House and the Senate are also getting some attention of their own. Opinions differ somewhat between different generations, races, and levels of education; however, they stay essentially the same between different genders and political parties. All in all, most Americans agree with setting an age restriction, and basically all agree on what that age should be. The question now becomes if Americans are willing to start pushing for these changes or if other issues will push this idea to the back seat.