Rachel Mendelson/Insider
Congress and the president are the oldest in US history.
There’s a growing age gap between government leaders and Americans being led.
Many young officials say they feel blocked by those clinging to power, the issues they espouse downplayed.
The United States’ elected leaders are the oldest they’ve ever been.
The age gap between the government and the governed is wider than ever before.
And the notion that the nation is now a gerontocracy — “a state, society or group governed by old people,” per the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary — is decidedly real.
Insider journalists have spent four month interviewing hundreds of sources and analyzing gigabytes of data to understand how the United States arrived at this moment.
In “Red, White, and Gray,” Insider endeavors to explain what it means for a nation that, on balance, is decades younger than its representatives in Washington, DC.
Launched September 13, here are highlights and key findings from this ongoing series:
Nearly 1 in 4 members of Congress are in their 70s or 80s — a level never before seen in US history.Almost 50% of Americans are under the age of 40, but only about 5% of Congress is.Before running for the White House in 2020, Joe Biden confided in a friend and quoted a death-defying line from poet Dylan Thomas: “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Said the friend to Nicole Gaudiano: “It was a window into how he views his role.”One of the most powerful legislators in modern US history acknowledged to Kimberly Leonard that President Ronald Reagan, while conducting a meeting at the White House, once seemingly forgot who he was.Current and former congressional staffers explained to Warren Rojas the lengths they’ve sometimes gone to keep aged lawmakers focused, engaged, and sometimes, upright. Old age has been a regular theme in presidential races. Often it’s a liability. But as Leonard and Darren Samuelsohn write, sometimes it’s not at all.Six former members of Congress dished to Jake Lahut about why they quit Capitol Hill in the primes of their political careers.Sen. Jon Ossoff and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Lauren Boebert, among several other young lawmakers, tell Oma Seddiq why youth is an advantage in Congress despite the high-profile flameouts of some peers, including Rep. Madison Cawthorn.
New installments of “Red, White, and Gray” will publish here through early October as voters across the country ready for the 2022 midterm elections.
Have a tip for Insider’s “Red, White, and Gray” reporting team? Confidentially email us at [email protected].