President Donald Trump notched a narrow but significant legislative win on May 22, as the House passed his multitrillion-dollar tax and spending package by a single vote, 215–214. The bill, which slashes taxes on tips and car loans while pumping billions into the Pentagon and border enforcement, drew fierce opposition from Democrats, who slammed it as a giveaway to the rich and a fiscal time bomb. But the most revealing fallout wasn’t about policy. It was about personnel. Specifically, the age—and absence—of key Democratic lawmakers.
Three Democratic-held seats were vacant on the day of the vote, all left open by the recent deaths of elderly House members: Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia (75), who died just a day before the vote from complications related to esophageal cancer; Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona (77), who passed away in March after battling lung cancer; and Rep. Sylvester Turner of Texas (70), who succumbed to a long-standing bone cancer diagnosis. Each represented safe blue districts. Each might have blocked the bill—if they had stepped aside earlier. Instead, their absences handed Republicans the margin they needed, writes NBC News.
Democrats aren’t just mourning losses. They’re blaming them.
Imagine if one of the older and sicker Dems would’ve retired instead of died in office and what that would’ve meant for millions of people. https://t.co/FKKDUNiGmf
— Rebecca Katz (@RebeccaKKatz) May 22, 2025
Katz is one of many on the left now calling out what they see as a quiet crisis: the gerontocracy that defines the party’s leadership—and its inability to plan for the future.
The warning signs have been there. Joe Biden’s faltering 2024 reelection bid, punctuated by a disastrous debate at age 81, ended in retreat but not before tearing open a generational rift. A new book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, accuses the president’s inner circle of hiding his condition from the public, setting the stage for Trump’s return to power. The story now feels less like an anomaly than a symptom.
Now, younger Democrats are openly revolting. David Hogg, the 25-year-old activist recently elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, is calling for primary challenges against aging incumbents in deep-blue seats. “We’ve handed Republicans an expanded majority because our elderly leaders refused to step down,” Hogg told NBC News. He’s pushing for a culture change—one that rewards renewal, not just tenure.
Not everyone is ready to toss out the old guard. Veteran strategist Mike Nellis, who has advised Vice President Kamala Harris, cautioned against ageism while still acknowledging the cultural disconnect. “We need leaders who can sit for a three-hour podcast and not sound like they’re lost in the 1990s,” he said. “It’s not about a number. It’s about being able to connect.”
But the clock is ticking. Trump’s bill is now law. Republicans are likely to keep the House. And Democrats are left confronting the uncomfortable truth that the same loyalty to experience that once served them well may now be costing them everything. The party’s younger generation is done waiting—and they’re making it clear: the price of inaction is only going up.
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