In 2018, Dianne Feinstein was elected to her fifth full term in the United States Senate. She was 85 years old.
Her opponent, Kevin de León, was more than 30 years younger and made Feinstein's age a central part of his campaign. “It's time for a change,” he told voters. It is time for “a new voice that expresses California values today, not yesterday.”
After winning, Feinstein spent her final years suffering from very chronic physical and cognitive decline. He faced incessant calls for him to resign, which the Democrat studiously ignored, dying hours after a final vote on the Senate floor. She was 90 years old.
Angus King and Bernie Sanders, two geriatric members of the US Senate, are now running for re-election, seeking their third and fourth terms, respectively. King would be 86 and Sanders 89 in January 2031, when those terms expire..
Both are independent and group with Democrats. Each of them is a heavy favorite to win in November.
“I would be flabbergasted if he didn't,” Chris Potholm, a professor emeritus at Bowdoin College in Maine, said of King.
“Invincible” was how Garrison Nelson of the University of Vermont described Sanders. “It's as solid as it gets in the race.”
As the two oldest presidential candidates in history battle for the White House (and President Biden, in particular, faces lingering questions about his physical and mental acuity), it's striking how little the longevity of the two sitting senators seems to matter. in their re-election bids.
“I haven't seen any pushback against Senator King related to his age,” said Amy Fried, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Maine.
The same goes for Sanders, who suffered a heart attack in 2019 during his second run for president.
“I don't think the age factor is important enough to threaten his reelection,” said Matthew Dickinson of Middlebury College in Vermont.
This is partly because voters often view political offices through different lenses.
“They are much more accepting of an older person in a legislative position, being one in a hundred in the Senate, or one in 435 in the House, than in an executive position,” said Charlie Cook, who has spent decades hindering elections across the country. . .
“While being a senator or congressman is a more demanding job than many think… it's nothing like being a CEO.”
That being said, was there another rule? double standard – Applied to Feinstein, as an 80-something woman in her 90s serving in a body that is still largely a men's club?
Many of its defenders thought so. Among examples, they pointed to the deference shown to Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John McCain after they were diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Both remained in office and were away from Washington for extended periods for medical care. Neither faced the uproar that engulfed Feinstein.
King and Sanders' path to re-election would also seem to underscore the notion that Feinstein, their generational peer, was treated more harshly because of her gender.
But there are important distinctions.
Most importantly, there is no evidence that King or Sanders suffer from the obvious disabilities that plagued Feinstein during her final years in office, which were marked by several prolonged absences due to health problems.
King “has a very tough agenda,” said Potholm, who has written a half-dozen books on Maine politics. “Talk to him for five minutes and you'll see that he's very intelligent.”
Sanders “doesn't show any lapses, any perceptible stutters or mutters or age-related disconnections,” said Nelson, who has known the senator for more than half a century, dating back to Sanders' turmoil days as a repeatedly unsuccessful candidate for state office. . .
Size matters too.
Maine, with 1.4 million people, and Vermont, with 650,000, are small states, both in size and population.. That makes it easier for voters to get to know politicians on a personal level, forging a connection that isn't possible in California, where politics tends to be more transactional, as in, what have you done for me lately?
Much of the turmoil surrounding Feinstein stemmed from her political stance, particularly from those on the left who long considered the former San Francisco mayor too moderate for their tastes. They tried to pressure her to resign so Governor Gavin Newsom could appoint someone more reliably liberal.
As Feinstein's health faltered, the stakes were raised by the nearly even split of the Senate.
She chaired the Judiciary Committee until concerns about her fitness forced her to resign from the position two years after re-election. She remained on the committee, but her absences jeopardized Democrats' ability to confirm Biden's judicial nominees.
That, and not Feinstein's gender, caused her age to “get a lot more attention” than it might have received under different circumstances, said Michele Swers, a Georgetown professor and author of two books on women in Congress.
In February 2023, Feinstein had the good sense to announce that she would not seek another term, paving the way for a strong campaign to succeed her. When he died last September, Newsom named Laphonza Butler as his caregiver.
At 45, a young man by Senate standards, Butler had this to say about King and Sanders.: “Not all 80-year-olds are the same.”
Furthermore, he told Politico: “Judging one person, five or two people based on the number on their birth certificate is probably not the best representation of American freedom.”
But don't take their word or anyone else's for that matter. It's up to voters in Maine and Vermont, who will have the final say in November.
