Democrats face an urgent crisis over senior leaders, some of whom are facing fatal illnesses, boxing out the younger, more well-known Democrats itching for a gutsier battle against President Donald Trump.
In the wake of Republicans’ sweeping victories in the 2024 election, Democrats are at a crossroads as they work to regain the trust of working-class voters who trended toward Trump. While establishment Democrats are convinced the path back to power is through a winning counter-platform for the economy, younger party members argue it’s time to clean house and usher in a new generation of fresh blood in Washington.
Several grassroots candidates have launched primary campaigns against longtime incumbents, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. David Scott (D-GA). Many of these challengers are Generation Z or millennials calling for a generational shake-up in national politics against lawmakers who are accepting of the status quo.
“There are a lot of other, older Democrats fighting off the years,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon told the Washington Examiner. “And young Democrats are getting restless.”
On Capitol Hill, the faces of the Democratic Party are becoming those of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Angie Craig (D-MN), Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), and Maxwell Frost (D-FL) — all younger lawmakers who are seeking leadership positions on powerful committees or within the caucus to make a difference in ways they believe their elder colleagues failed last November.
It’s not just happening in Congress. Democratic National Committee vice chairman David Hogg is attempting major reform from his leadership position. His group, Leaders We Deserve, plans to spend $20 million on Democratic primaries to elect younger politicians who will be more aggressive toward Trump.
“I think it’s going to get worse too, because there are a lot of young Democrats out there chafing at the bits, waiting for their chance,” Bannon added. “They want younger, aggressive leadership.”
Senior members won’t let go of their power easily. Democrats have rejected proposals on term limits for committee leadership positions in previous years, particularly as groups like the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses have argued that seniority-based positions keep the chairmanships diversified.
“There is merit to that argument, but I don’t feel like we’ve hit a sweet spot,” one House Democrat granted anonymity to speak about caucus conversations told the Washington Examiner. “Like, there are other things that you can put in place to make sure that you’re cultivating leaders who are truly representative.”
HOUSE LAWMAKERS ABANDONING SHIP FOR HIGHER OFFICE MUDDLE 2026 MAP
Another Democrat was more blunt in their assessment of how older Democrats view the dilemma.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter to most folks,” said Michael Ceraso, a Democratic strategist who has worked on several presidential campaigns. “At the end of the day, if they feel like they want a position of power, they’re going to go for it, regardless of their health status and regardless of their age.”
Caucus faces generational reckoning as seniority rules led to ailing leaders
After the November elections, Democrats faced a grim reality: The party would have virtually no political power in a GOP trifecta. The only real way to exercise oversight and have a voice would be through the ranking memberships on important committees, particularly the House Oversight, Judiciary, Agriculture, and Energy and Commerce Committees.
But in the first months of 2025, Democrats haven’t changed course. Democrats traditionally have led by seniority, with minority blocs insisting it is a stronger safeguard to make sure the caucus stays inclusive.
Late Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died in March at age 77, sought another term as the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee in December, setting up a fight between himself and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), 60. Grijalva eventually stepped aside, ceding the post to Huffman.
But Grijalva, who had been battling cancer since April 2024, remained in his House seat despite being absent for the majority of last year’s votes and much of the beginning of the 119th Congress. He was the sole Democrat who did not show up to vote on the GOP’s budget resolution due to his diagnosis.
Democrats also selected Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who was backed by Pelosi, to serve as the ranking member of the Oversight Committee over Ocasio-Cortez. Many Democrats at the time had privately expressed concerns with his ability to lead the panel, given his cancer diagnosis announced two days after winning reelection in 2024.
Connolly announced on April 28 that he would step away from the ranking member position “soon,” with Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), 70, serving in the interim. Lynch also has Connolly’s endorsement to stay in the position permanently, setting up an uphill battle for members such as Crockett or Frost to make a bid for committee leadership.
House Democratic leadership does not seem in a rush to have another generational battle for the Oversight position. Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) said last week that there “is no vacancy” but that leadership would “step up and help run the meetings as well.”
Several rank-and-file Democrats are frustrated with the same vicious circle in which the party keeps finding itself trapped, heightened with recent vacancies due to deaths or illnesses of elder members.
“I don’t know how you can look at the state of our country and think that the same-old solutions from the same members who’ve been here for the past 20 years are going to fix things,” a House Democrat told the Washington Examiner. “We desperately need a shake-up and some fresh perspectives.”
Another House Democrat said they think Democrats are falling behind in freshening the caucus ranks with vibrant new members compared to the GOP.
“Republicans are better about cultivating their younger leadership,” the lawmaker said.
“We’re not cultivating younger leaders,” the Democratic member added. “And by younger, I mean people under 70, right? It’s noticeable that, as a party, we haven’t been good about nurturing younger leaders. And I think there is a lot of frustration.”
One success story for House Democrats desperate for new blood is that of Craig, who defeated Scott for the ranking membership on the Agriculture Committee. Craig told the Washington Examiner that while Democrats need the “best players” in the seats, there are “moments in time where it’s appropriate for change.”
“Look, I’ve made the joke that, where else in America could a 53-year-old grandmother of three represent generational change?” Craig quipped. “I think it’s important for the next generation of qualified leaders to have somewhere to go lead.”
BIDEN ADMITS THAT ENDING 2024 CAMPAIGN WAS THE ‘RIGHT DECISION’ IN BBC INTERVIEW
But Craig is now running for Minnesota’s open Senate seat. Her office confirmed she will remain in the ranking membership position as she campaigns for the upper chamber. However, older House Democrats are using Craig’s situation as padding for their seniority argument.
“You’re gonna hear people saying, ‘Well, we backed Angie as an up-and-comer, and she decides to walk away from that,’” one lawmaker said.
Fixing the seniority problem won’t be easy
Content creator Deja Foxx is among the growing number of Gen-Z candidates who are not waiting for their turn to run, instead jumping right into the fray and seeking congressional office.
The 25-year-old Foxx filed to run for Arizona’s Seventh Congressional District, for the seat once held by Grijalva. If she wins, she could become the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress. But she faces a wide pool of challengers, including the late congressman’s daughter, Adelita Grijalva, who has the backing of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s political arm.
Like other Gen Z Democrats, Foxx concedes that the party’s strong adherence to seniority plagues it, but she is also hopeful that more people, herself included, are pushing for a different vision for the party.
“Seniority politics is part of the problem and instead, we should be as a party, and frankly, as a democracy, following where the people are at,” she said.
If Democrats such as Ocasio-Cortez are rising in the polls, bringing in strong fundraising figures, Foxx claimed, “then our party should be embracing that.”
But the New York Democrat passed on running again as ranking member, citing concerns that the party isn’t ready to embrace younger leaders.
“It’s actually clear to me that the underlying dynamics in the caucus have not shifted with respect to seniority as much as I think would be necessary,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
In response to Democratic anger over Hogg’s work to oust elder Democrats, DNC chairman Ken Martin publicly stated that no officer should intervene in primary battles.
Martin claims it’s not his “intention” to push Hogg out of leadership, but Hogg has refused to resign or sign a neutrality pledge. It’s unclear if the DNC can even remove Hogg from leadership before its August meeting, when it could change bylaws to allow for his removal.
However, Hogg’s intransigence proves that Democrats will likely need to give way to younger leaders or risk more public internal drama that distracts from countering the Trump administration.
DNC Vice Chairman Malcolm Kenyatta said young and older Democrats are uniting and finding a home in the Democratic Party to fight against Trump’s “dangerous agenda.”
“Whether as creators, volunteers, staffers, or candidates for office, now more than ever, young Democrats are joining hand in hand with generations of Democratic leaders to fight for the future of this country because we believe in the promise of America and understand the existential threat Trump poses to it,” Kenyatta told the Washington Examiner.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, is one of the few leaders who has willingly walked from his post, allowing a new crop of ambitious Democrats to advance their careers. Yet, relying on the willingness of Democrats to put aside their power for the good of the party’s future doesn’t appear to be working.
Some Democrats are expecting calls for term limits to resurge as a solution to help ease out aging and ailing leaders. Democrats have tried for term limits in the past, but the caucus rejected that push in 2022. Republicans, on the other hand, may not be elected to serve as committee leaders (or ranking members) for more than three consecutive terms, or six years.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus is one of the few blocs with term limits, something Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) instated when she became chairwoman.
“I generally am in favor of term limits because I think it really builds leadership capacity, and it also helps people to feel like there are places for them to advance,” Jayapal told the Washington Examiner. “So I’ve always been in favor of that, and I think I would be in favor of some version of it — doesn’t have to be the same, but, you know, some version of it for the entire caucus, as well.”
Some strategists are wary of how effective term limits would be in the long run.
Ceraso warned that a solution to the battle over seniority would do little to appease elder party leaders.
“I think there has to be a level of empathy. But I don’t really think there’s a clear-cut solution without it making it completely unfair,” he said.
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said he did not view term limits as a real solution to party troubles in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI LAUNCHES ILLINOIS SENATE CAMPAIGN WITH LARGE WAR CHEST TO COMBAT PRITZKER’S
“Anybody who doesn’t recognize a need to change the face and vibe of our party has their head in the sand,” Green said. “And we might accidentally be successful in 2025 and 2026 just because there’s so much pushback to Trump. But that is a band-aid over a much larger wound for our party if we don’t fix it.”
“That’s why, of all the solutions out there, David Hogg’s solution of, ‘Just pick better Democrats in the primaries and have a better army going into the second half of the Trump presidency,’ is the most obvious solution,” Green continued. “And if the effect of that is to scare ineffective Democrats into being more effective, even if they’re not primaried, well, that’s a bonus.”
Lauren Green contributed to this report.