Barbara Boxer decided she was done. When she turned 70, just after being re-elected to the US Senate, she decided that the fourth term will be her last.
“I just felt it was time,” Boxer said. “I wanted to do other things.”
Moreover, she knew that the Democratic bench was full of many bright prospects, including then-Attorney General of CaliforniaKamala Harris, who replaced Boxer in Washington on the way to her election of Joe Biden as vice president.
When Boxer retired in 2017 after 24 years in the Senate, she left one of the most powerful and privileged positions in American politics. a job that many clung to until my last hoarse breath.
(Boxer tried to gently nudge fellow Democrat and former Senate colleague Dianne Feinstein, whose mental and physical decline was widely documented during the last difficult years of her tenure. Ignoring calls to step aside, Feinstein died at the age of 90.hours after voting on a procedural matter on the Senate floor.)
Now attempts are being made among Democratsfrom Hawaii to Massachusetts to force other senior lawmakers to yield, as Boxer did, to a new, younger generation of leaders. The movement is driven by ordinary ambitions, as well as disgust with Donald Trump And existential anxiety who visits a political party every time it loses a dismal election like the one Democrats face off in 2024.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the most important goal.
Last week she attracted a second serious challenger to her re-election. State Senator Scott Wienerwho entered the contest alongside tech millionaire Saikat Chakrabarti, who has been campaigning against the incumbent for much of the year.
Pelosi, who is 85 years old did not face serious election struggle in San Francisco since Ronald Reagan was in the White House – expected to be announced some time later. California special election November 4 whether she will run again in 2026.
Boxer, who turns 85 next month, offered Pelosi no advice, although she rejected the notion that age necessarily equates to frailty or political obsolescence. She pointed to Ted Kennedy And John McCaintwo senators she worked with who remained active and influential in Congress even after 70 years.
On the other hand, Boxer said, “Some people don't deserve to be there for five minutes, let alone five years… They're 50. Is that good? No. There are people who are 60 years old and have no ideas.”
There is “no universal” indicator for when a deputy’s term has expired, Boxer said. It's better, she said, for voters to look at what motivates someone to stay in office. Are they driven by purpose – and still able to get the job done – “or is it a matter of personal ego or psychology?”
“My last six years have been the most fruitful.» said Boxer, who opposes term limits and mandatory retirement ages for members of Congress. “And if they had said 65 and up, I wouldn’t be there.”
Art Agnos has not decided to leave his post.
He was 53 years old—in the prime of his youth compared with some of today's Democratic elders—when he lost his bid for re-election after one term as mayor of San Francisco.
“I was in the middle of my prime, so I was running for re-election,” he said. “And honestly,” he added with a laugh, “I still feel like I’m in my prime at 87.”
A friend and longtime ally of Pelosi, Agnos bristled at the ageism he believes is directed at lawmakers of a certain generation. Why, he asks, is this acceptable in politics when it is frowned upon in virtually every other field of activity?
“What kind of professions do we want to fill talented young people who have never done it before because they are smart, young and say the right things?” – Agnos asked rhetorically. “You'd go and say, 'Let me find a neurosurgeon who's never done this before, but he's smart, young and has a lot of promise.' We don't do that. What about us?
“Give me someone who has experience,” Agnos said, “who has been through this and knows how to handle a crisis or a specific problem.”
Pete Wilson also left the office sooner than he would have liked, but that's because deadline constraints forced him to leave after eight years as governor of California. (Before that he served eight years in the Senate and 11 like Greater San Diego.)
“I thought I had done a good job … and some people said, 'Gee, what a shame you can't run for a third term,'” Wilson said as he headed to New Haven, Conn., for Yale's 1955 class reunion. “I actually agreed with them.”
However, unlike Boxer, Wilson supports term limits as a way to inject fresh blood into the political system and prevent too many senior officials from inadvertently staying in office.
Not that he was blind to the urge to hold on. Power. Pros. And, perhaps, above all, the desire to complete the task.
At 92, Wilson maintains an active law practice in Century City and didn't hesitate: “Yes!” he exclaimed when asked if he considered himself capable of serving as governor today, even though he was already in his tenth decade on Earth.
His wife Gail could be heard chuckling in the background.
“She laughs,” Wilson said dryly, “because she knows that because of my actions, she is in no danger.”
