Can You Be Too Young For Congress?
The Constitution states you must be at least 25 years old to be member of the House of Representatives and 30 years old for the Senate. These ages were set over 200 years ago. At that time 25 was “old” and 30 was very mature. The country was also vastly smaller then in physical size and population.
It would be the very rare person whose breath of experiences at those ages would allow them to be effective today. I would be hard pressed to think of anyone in their 20’s who could be a good Congressperson. This is not a critic of the individual, just the immense responsibility the job calls for. The same for a Senator in their early 30’s. Are there people out there who could do it, I am sure there are. I would still have significant reservations and would need to have careful study on what thay have done. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at age 29 will be an interesting test of this.
I also believe you can be too old for Congress. You would be hard pressed to convince me that someone past the age of 80 can be an effective representative. If airline pilots have to retire at 65, so should people in Congress. A state and district need to have turnover in the political offices in order to get new ideas and thinking.
There will be more younger people elected to Congress in 2020. It will be interesting to see how well they are able to do the job.
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