Apparently, retirement is more of a suggestion when you work in politics. After looking through Reddit and asking the BuzzFeed Community which politicians they think are way too old to still be in office, the responses were LOUD. So here are 18 politicians people say should have passed the torch, a long, long, longggg time ago:
Some submissions were pulled from these Reddit threads: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
1.
"Chuck Grassley is 92 years old! Politicians this old, on both sides, are completely out of touch with the people they're supposed to govern. It's time to turn the future over to the people who will actually be living in it. You can't move forward by governing backward. TERM LIMITS!"
Chuck Grassley, 92, is a Republican senator from Iowa. He has been in Congress since 1975 and in the Senate since 1981, so yes, that literally means he has held federal office for more than 50 years.
2.
"Donald Trump's speeches remind me of the children's book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. They wander all over the place without ever getting to the point."
Donald Trump, 80, is the current president of the United States and the oldest person ever elected president. He has also faced repeated questions about his health, though the White House has said he remains fit to serve...
Fun fact: Trump, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush were all born in 1946, but Trump is actually the oldest of the three. Clinton left the White House in 2001, and Bush left in 2009 — yet Trump is still serving as president decades later.
3.
"Nancy Pelosi was 84 when she ran for reelection and would be 86 by the end of that term. I'm not arguing that she is incapable, but I think both the country and the Democratic Party would benefit from her passing the torch to a younger politician."
Nancy Pelosi, 86, is a Democratic representative from San Francisco and the first woman to serve as speaker of the House. She entered Congress in 1987 and has announced that she will retire when her current term ends in January 2027 — nearly 40 years after she first took office.
4.
"Jim Risch wants to serve in the Senate until he's 89. Really? Can we seriously not stop electing old, rich people? How many more bad examples, on either the right or the left, do we need before we understand that this is a terrible idea?"
Jim Risch, 83, is a Republican senator from Idaho who has served in the Senate since 2009. He won the Republican nomination for another six-year term in 2026, which means he could remain in office until he is 89.
5.
"Mitch McConnell just seems so out of it."
Mitch McConnell, 84, is a Republican senator from Kentucky who has been in the Senate since 1985. He led Senate Republicans for nearly two decades before stepping down from that role in 2025, but he is still serving in Congress.
6.
"Ed Markey was first elected to public office when I was friggin' 10 years old. I'm turning 60 in two weeks. WE NEED TERM LIMITS NOW."
Ed Markey, 80, is a Democratic senator from Massachusetts. He was first elected to Congress in 1976, served in the House for more than 36 years, and then moved to the Senate in 2013. For context, that means he has been in Congress for roughly half a century.
7.
"Bernie Sanders would be doing his cause a favor in the long term if he stepped aside for a younger voice and helped build that person's standing as a mentor. New blood in politics is good, actually."
Bernie Sanders, 84, is an independent senator from Vermont who usually votes with Democrats. He entered Congress in 1991, moved from the House to the Senate in 2007, and won another six-year term in 2024.
8.
"Eleanor Holmes Norton is 89 years old. Let her retire and give somebody from a younger generation the opportunity to represent Washington, DC."
Eleanor Holmes Norton, 89, has represented Washington, DC, in Congress since 1991. Because DC is not a state, she can introduce legislation and serve on committees, but she cannot vote when the full House makes its final decision on a bill. Norton has ended her reelection campaign and will retire at the end of her current term.
9.
"Susan Collins does not need another term. It's time to go out to pasture, lady!"
Susan Collins, 73, is a Republican senator from Maine who has held the seat since 1997. And she is currently running for a sixth term in the November 2026 election.
10.
"Peter Welch is the Senate's oldest freshman member. If he served as long as Robert Byrd did, his term would end in 2074 — and he would be 127 years old."
Peter Welch, 79, is a Democratic senator from Vermont. He spent 16 years in the House before entering the Senate at age 75, making him the oldest person ever to begin a first term as a US senator. And just to be clear, the Robert Byrd comparison is an exaggerated hypothetical — it is not saying Welch actually plans to remain in office until age 127.
11.
"Maxine Waters will be 90 while serving in Congress if she is reelected. I don't mind members of Congress being in their 70s, or even the occasional 80-year-old. But that is absurd."
Maxine Waters, 87, is a Democratic representative from California who has served in Congress since 1991. She is running for another two-year term in 2026 and would turn 90 shortly before that term ended.
12.
"Angus King ran for another Senate term at 80 years old. Why? Why was he still running for office? These politicians are too old — and I actually like a lot of their politics."
Angus King, 82, is an independent senator from Maine who usually votes with Democrats. He won another six-year term in 2024, when he was 80, so he could remain in the Senate until he is 86.
13.
"Dick Durbin is too 'old guard' for this moment. My bigger problem is that Democratic committee chairs are largely chosen by seniority, which ends up burying talented younger senators."
Dick Durbin, 81, is a Democratic senator from Illinois who has served in the Senate since 1997. He was also the second-highest-ranking Senate Democrat for 20 years. Durbin has announced that he will retire when his current term ends in January 2027.
14.
"Richard Blumenthal is exactly why we need more young people in Congress. Fighting the battles we face requires not only experience and intelligence, but energy."
Richard Blumenthal, 80, is a Democratic senator from Connecticut who has served in the Senate since 2011. The original Reddit discussion compared him with Connecticut's younger senator, Chris Murphy, with the commenter arguing that younger politicians may bring more energy and urgency to the job.
15.
"Jim Clyburn may make some good points, but can we please get people who were born after World War II making decisions for the Democratic Party?"
Jim Clyburn, 86, is a Democratic representative from South Carolina who has served in Congress since 1993. He has held several powerful leadership positions within the Democratic Party and is running for an 18th term in 2026.
16.
"Marcy Kaptur has been in Congress since 1983. At some point, it's time to let somebody new take over."
Marcy Kaptur, 80, is a Democratic representative from Ohio who has served in the House since 1983. She is now the longest-serving woman in the history of the House.
17.
"Ah, yes. The 73-year-old Sherrod Brown is the 'comeback kid.' Don't get me wrong — he's getting my vote. But I'm so over our current gerontocracy."
Sherrod Brown, 73, represented Ohio in the Senate from 2007 until he lost reelection in 2024. But he is not exactly retired from politics: He won Ohio's 2026 Democratic Senate primary and is now trying to return to Congress.
18.
And lastly, "Rand Paul has been involved in national politics for what feels like forever. I remember looking him up when I was in high school during the Bush administration, and somehow he is still out there being a turd."
Rand Paul, 63, is a Republican senator from Kentucky who has served in the Senate since 2011. He may be the youngest politician on this list, but he is already older than 62, the average retirement age in America.
So, what age should the cutoff be? And is there another older politician who should be on this list? Share your thoughts in the comments or anonymous form below — your response may be featured in a future BuzzFeed Community post!
Спутники
РН
SpaceX
Роскосмос
NASA