A strategic failure
Following up on the post below, Donald Trump’s reconciliation bill passed in the U.S. House early this morning. Not one Democrat voted for passage. The measure passed by a single vote. A hat tip to Lee Papa for identifying why: “Three Democrats 70 and older have died since this Congress was sworn in.”
Sylvester Turner (70) of Texas died on March 5 of “enduring health complications.” He filled the seat of the late Sheila Jackson Lee who died last year at 74. Turner was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer in 2022. He served a total of 61 days in the House.
Raul Grijalva (77) of Arizona died on March 13 from complications of cancer treatments.
Gerry Connolly (75) defeated New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (35) in December to become ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. He died at home in Virginia on Wednesday (yesterday). He’d been diagnosed late last year with esophageal cancer.
The last 8 members of Congress to die in office have all been Democrats
We send condolences to their families.
But passage of Trump’s “One Big Brutal Bill” makes it clearer than ever that Democrats’ geriatric leadership is not just a seniority culture problem or the fallout from personal ambition. It’s a strategic failure.
Katie Glueck writes in The New York Times:
For a party struggling with a litany of problems, perhaps no subject in recent years has been more painful, delicate or politically perilous than the matter of age — an issue that keeps rearing its head in 2025 as party leaders now acknowledge the problem but remain hesitant to directly call out aging colleagues.
Former Rep. Joe Cunningham, 42, of South Carolina tells Gleuck:
“You can take a look at folks who are up there, who’ve been up there for 30, 40, 50 years, and say, ‘Look, it’s probably best time that you move on and create a bit of a room for some new leadership,’” he said. “Considering where the Democratic Party is now, I think it’s a big problem.”
He cited the deaths of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, and alluded to Mr. Biden’s decision to seek a second term, which he would have concluded at the age of 86.
Friends still litigating “Biden’s too old” are missing Cunningham’s broader point. Amanda Litman gets it.
“All of that hammers home how important it is to have this conversation in public, even when it’s messy, even when it’s walking over land mines, even when it can feel painful, because we can’t assume that it’s happening in private,” said Amanda Litman, who leads Run for Something, a progressive group that recruits younger Democrats to seek local office. “We can’t assume that the individual elected is going to know when it’s their time.”
She praised several older Democrats who have decided to retire on their own terms.
“They are being patriots, and when they do move on, they open up the floodgates for new leaders up and down the ballot,” she said. “The ones that are refusing are being primaried, and those primaries are going to be personal. Like, it’s not going to be a fun primary that they’re going to romp to victory on.”
The donkey in the room
David Hogg, the new and newly embattled DNC Vice Chair, gets it, though he goes unmentioned by the Times. His group Leaders We Deserve launched a $20 million project in April to primary perceived ineffective Democrats in safe House seats. The DNC is not amused:
“We’re not only focused on targeting Democratic incumbents when necessary,” Hogg told The Hill in a Wednesday interview. “We are here to elect young people who are running in open seats. We’re here to elect young people that are running open, competitive seats as well, and support them when they align with our values.”
“There are older people who are great; there are young people who suck,” Hogg told MSNBC’s “The Weekend Primetime” on Sunday. “It’s about effectiveness and being able to meet this moment.” Hogg claims his effort is “more nuanced” than just about age. But this morning’s House vote makes clear that age is the donkey in the room.
I’m there already. Democrats’ age problem is a strategic failure. More than sinecures and pensions and speaking fees are on the line. Constituents’ lives are.
But then there’s a lot of strategic wrongheadedness inside and outside the party.
Behold. At donor retreats, the party’s megadonors are examining pitch documents aiming to throw money at finding a Democratic counterpart to Joe Rogan:
Democrats widely believe they must grow more creative in stoking online enthusiasm for their candidates, particularly in less outwardly political forms of media like sports or lifestyle podcasts. Many now take it as gospel that Mr. Trump’s victory last year came in part because he cultivated an ecosystem of supporters on YouTube, TikTok and podcasts, in addition to the many Trump-friendly hosts on Fox News.
The quiet effort amounts to an audacious — skeptics might say desperate — bet that Democrats can buy more cultural relevance online, despite the fact that casually right-leaning touchstones like Mr. Rogan’s podcast were not built by political donors and did not rise overnight.
Head : Desk. Democrats are always fighting the last war. It’s like a candidate instructing his staff to “make me go viral.”
What’s undersized in the February graphic above is the MediasTouch Podcast (Ben, Brett and Jordy Meiselas). Newsweek reported weeks later that “the MediasTouch Podcast received 125.6 million downloads in March, an increase of 126 per cent. Rogan’s podcast received 65.4 million downloads.”
But as a friend observes, Democratic donors would rather support social media stars they cultivate and own. These donors (from tech and Wall Street) think like investors and in terms of a quick return on investment (ROI), not like right-wing ideologues who sink billions long-term into developing conservative infrastructure.
Besides, Democrats’ gerontocracy would rather support people who need their money more than the investor class needs them. That’s why the Meiselas brothers will remain blue-headed stepchildren.
As Waleed Shahid observes, “The audience craves honesty and anti-system populism, not DNC branding.”
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