Why are US politicians getting older?

Many US politicians have served for a long time. For example, Hal Rogers has represented Kentucky's 5th congressional district since 1981. The 88-year-old Republican is seeking his 24th term in the House of Representatives in November's midterm elections. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.

Rogers was born in the 1930s. He is the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives. He was elected on the same night Ronald Reagan won his first presidential term under the slogan "Let's make America great again", a phrase later revived by Donald Trump.

Rogers is far from the only senior US politician to have stuck at the job into their 80s. US President Donald Trump is 80; Trump's predecessor Joe Biden left office at 82; and Nancy Pelosi stepped down as the Democratic leader in the House at the same age. Chuck Grassley, 93, is still a senator. He entered politics in 1958, before Alaska and Hawaii were even US states.

The age and health of some politicians has raised widespread concern within both Republican and Democratic circles, reigniting questions about whether age limits or health checks should be imposed.

The US is well known for its "gerontocracy", a government ruled by people who are significantly older than most of the adult population. According to research from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the US has one of the lowest proportions of lawmakers under the age of 45 among comparable democracies.

So why are so few young people becoming politicians? And for those who do enter politics, can they make a success of it?

Twenty-seven-year-old Republican Riley Owen is one of the few candidates from Gen Z - aged in their early teens to late 20s - from either party running for Congress on 3 November. Owen is running in a newly created district in Utah that experts say may lean towards the Democrats. He has championed issues including paid maternity leave, restrictions on congressional stock trading and environmental action - all issues that may appeal to Democratic supporters.

When he was confirmed as his party's candidate in the state's 1st congressional district, he walked on stage to Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire, and argued that his generation needed to help renew the American Dream.

The gerontocracy is "a bipartisan issue", he says. "We've got people who have become career politicians, and they spend their lives in Congress." He says this is indicative of a system that is not delivering for Americans.

Owen says the big challenge he faces is the fact that money really talks in US politics. Research suggests campaign donors tend to prefer incumbent candidates.

Indeed, the campaign of his rival Ben McAdams - a 51-year-old Democrat who has previously served in Congress - has so far raised much more cash than Owen's. By mid-October, McAdams had raised over $2.6m (£1.9m), compared with $150,000 raised by Owen, according to records on the Federal Election Commission website.

Owen argues that his generation is uniquely well-placed to understand contemporary political issues, such as the challenges posed by tech. He also disputes any suggestion that a younger candidate necessarily lacks relevant experience - pointing to his own background as a military officer and a White House policy analyst. "I think in politics, just like in industry, we need what's called disruptive innovation," he says.

The age of America's top politicians has long been a talking point. In 1984 Reagan - who was then America's oldest president at age 73 - deflected scrutiny with a quip about the "youth and inexperience" of his opponent Walter Mondale, who was a sprightly 56.

In the US, individual states also have their own legislatures, with a Senate and a House, where many politicians make their start. Many current members of Congress spent years in state politics before running for a seat in Washington.

But the median age of Congress members has ticked upwards over time. Congressional records show that the lowest median ages in the House and Senate were both recorded in the early 1980s - at 48 and 52 respectively. The average ages of a House member and a senator at the start of the current Congress were 58 and 65 respectively, according to analysis by the Pew Research Center. The median age of a US citizen is 39.

There is now also a sharper focus on the health and acuity of some of the nation's oldest politicians. Joe Biden's age became a major issue while he was in office. To a lesser extent Trump has faced questions too.

So too has Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, 84, with increasing regularity, after a months-long absence from Congress to undergo medical treatment. Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Maxine Waters, 88, faces a leadership challenge as the lead Democrat on the powerful House Financial Services Committee, with her age considered by some to be a factor counting against her.

Some of the most vocal critics of this so-called gerontocracy have been candidates who identify as democratic socialists, meaning that their political views are further to the left than those of the Democratic Party mainstream. These candidates tend to campaign heavily on the cost of living and other issues that cut through to Millennials and Gen Z, and their supporters skew younger too.

The demographic profile of people who vote tends to skew older, like the elected officials themselves. Pew research highlights that the proportion of non-voters who are young (aged 18 to 29) has been increasing. In the 2020 US election, 25% of non-voters belonged to this age group.