Asha Rountree

If someone were to visualize an 80-year-old, many would think of retirement homes, dentures, and grandchildren. Not as many would recollect presidents’ faces or leaders of Congress. However, in the 2020 election, the average age of the presidential candidates was 70.25 years old. To even consider running for president in the U.S., you must be at least 35 years old—almost half of the average lifespan. This means almost a quarter of eligible voters aren’t seeing age representation. I am scared for the future we are currently heading towards, where senior citizens fill all our highest-ranked positions. Lowering the age limit to 25 for running for office could add more young and middle-aged people to our offices and lead to the creation of new ideas and opinions that can help America move forward. 

The 2020 election was coined by Politico Magazine as “the Dementia Campaign,” a nickname poking fun at the candidates’ ages, but also a title reminding us of our government’s demographics. Unlike the United States, Australia, Denmark, France, and many other countries’ presidential age of candidacy starts at 18, which has enabled them to become powerful and prolific nations; the U.S. should consider doing the same. 

America’s age of presidential candidacy was first set nearly 250 years ago and no longer reflects the lived realities of this country’s citizens, especially the youth. 18 and 20-year-olds, on average, are no longer working on farms and helping run family stores, but are becoming college-educated and gaining experience in the workforce, according to Statista. It is easy to see the change in youth through today’s age of digital and online news sources. News sites like TheCramm and credible social media accounts such as @genzforchange help provide informed and digestible news for teens, by teens, according to Teen Vogue, showing how the youth have become more involved in politics than in the past. Even during the pandemic, students were crowded around screens, watching the election over days of Zoom classes. These teens often have higher stakes in policies than their senior counterparts– being most affected by revised gun laws, climate policies, and pushes for a change in the voting age. For example, in 2022, students from more than 60 high schools and universities across 29 states held strikes against anti-abortion laws, such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade, according to ABC News. Teens are not just bystanders to their world: they are active participants and shouldn’t have to wait two decades to run for office.

Anatomically speaking, our brains typically reach full development around the age of 25, according to the Postgrad Medical Journal. The argument that due to this fact, 25 is too young for candidates to be running for office, is commonly used by older adults to keep the candidacy age the same. What they fail to point out, however, is that around age 30-40, the brain begins to shrink, with it quickening by age 60. This shrinkage directly impacts the frontal cortex, the part of the brain dedicated to learning, judgment, and complex mental activities, according to the Postgrad Medical Journal. These are all traits that are extremely important for running a government and a country. The hypocrisy is stark—older generations insist that younger ones don’t have the mental capacity to run their country, whilst ignoring their own diminishing cognitive capabilities.

According to Business Insider, nearly one in four members of Congress are in their 70s or 80s, with key leaders born before or during World War II, which ended in 1945. Since then, massive strides have been made in civil, queer, women’s, and environmental rights. Politicians who weren’t born into this new era often do not understand the perspective and struggles faced by the youth. The age of our leaders directly impacts what legislation we pass, the voices and perspectives we choose to amplify, and America’s appearance to the world. When you ask people from other countries what they think of America, most of the time it’s a joke about past presidents or how we have to pay for healthcare. People from across every continent take to Twitter, TikTok, and other social media to make fun of our backward policies. I’m tired of these policies too, and the majority of them have been passed by older politicians.

In a rematch of the 2020 election, Biden led Trump 38% to 30% among young voters, but 22% of voters between ages 18 and 29 said that, given the choice between these two candidates, they simply would not vote, according to The New York Times. Young voters are not interested in candidates three times their age, and won’t vote for them, showing that a system that doesn’t support the candidacy of young politicians will not accurately reflect the concerns of our society’s youth and future.

The majority of the people governing our Congress and supreme courts have outdated perspectives that misrepresent modern America, and that needs to change. Lowering the minimum age limit for politicians is a start.