Eleven octogenarians won their congressional primaries in 2026 and are on the ballot for the 2026 midterm elections. The oldest primary winner was Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, an 83-year-old Republican.

Age appears to be one of the few issues on which both major political parties agree: for many candidates, age is just a number — even when it starts with an 8 or a 9.

Letting go

Nancy Forster-Holt and her colleagues study succession in family-run businesses and other occupations in which leadership, identity and longevity become deeply intertwined. Whether someone runs a company or serves as a lawmaker, the work does more than keep them busy: it provides status, an identity and a sense of mission. Letting go means giving up far more than a job.

When business leaders or politicians linger too long, it can be costly for their companies or constituents, because potential successors may grow frustrated by the wait and move on. The reasons a leader stays in a role for decades range from a genuine love of the work to uncertainty about what they will do — or who they will be — once they leave. Waiting too long, however, can force them to hand off their responsibilities in crisis mode.

In family businesses, Forster-Holt's research team found, the people closest to their leaders — including relatives, employees and longtime supporters — may go quiet rather than press the issue. That dynamic is not confined to the business world. It also applies to many of the older members of Congress.

A closer look at the large number of legislators who continue to serve well into their golden years reflects two trends. First, many are elected for the first time in middle age: new House members were about 50 years old and new senators around 55 in 2025. Second, although the median age of House lawmakers is now about 60, and 66 in the Senate, a small group of long-serving members remains in office into and past their 80s and keeps running for reelection. Congress sets no mandatory retirement age and no term limits for its members, and the current age profile ranks among the oldest in U.S. history — so when leaders step aside is, in practice, decided by each of them and by the voters.

The advantages of 'not yet'

Every lawmaker can find a reason to say "not yet." So can their staff members, who may be loyal to them and their missions and professionally invested in the work they have built together. Political parties value the electoral advantages of incumbents, while constituents may value the seniority, relationships and influence that come with decades of service in Congress. And incumbents can sincerely believe important work remains unfinished.

Unusually prolonged service in any position, however, increases the possibility that illness, cognitive decline or death will produce an unplanned — and probably rocky — transition. Politicians who serve into their late 70s, 80s or beyond are also breaking with ordinary employment patterns: the typical American retires in their early 60s, and two-thirds of U.S. workers exit the labor force before their 65th birthday.

Setting good and bad examples

Some long-serving politicians have chosen to plan their exits closer to standard retirement age. One is Barbara Boxer. After more than three decades in Congress, the 74-year-old California Democrat announced in January 2015 that she would not seek reelection to the U.S. Senate the following year. "There is a time when you want the next generation to step in and step up," she said.

Boxer's early decision gave prospective successors nearly two years to organize, and voters the opportunity to choose among them. Kamala Harris won the seat but later stepped away to serve as President Joe Biden's vice president.

That departure offers a striking contrast with that of Boxer's longtime colleague, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who remained in the Senate through a lengthy health-related absence in 2023. Feinstein, also a California Democrat, died in office that September. She was 90 years old.

Feinstein served on the influential Senate Judiciary Committee, which considers federal judicial nominations, including Supreme Court nominees. During her nearly three-month absence, the committee was deadlocked on dozens of Biden nominations after Republicans refused to let Democrats appoint a temporary replacement for her and she refused to step down. The tragic way Feinstein's storied political career ended illustrated what can go wrong when lawmakers keep saying "not yet" until it is too late.

That turned out to be the case with Biden, who reluctantly ended his presidential reelection campaign in July 2024. Several books published since then include details about how his inner circle initially advised him to run again.

A rushed attempt at succession followed Biden's abrupt withdrawal from the race. Harris became the Democratic nominee without participating in any of the 2024 primaries. When change finally came, it arrived under duress rather than by design — and Harris lost the election to Donald Trump.

Fearing what might follow

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, a Texas Republican, announced in 2023 that she would not seek reelection the following year. It soon became clear that severe health problems were preventing her from serving her constituents. The former House Appropriations Committee chair did not cast a vote in her final six months in office for good reason: she had dementia and was staying in a Texas assisted-living facility that provides memory care services to some residents. Granger died in August 2026 at 83.

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a former Senate majority and minority leader, has announced that he will step down when his current term — the Kentucky Republican's seventh — ends in January 2027. But a fall, hospitalization and subsequent stint in a rehabilitation center in mid-2026 prompted renewed public scrutiny of the 84-year-old's health and ability to complete his term.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who turned 93 on Sept. 17, 2026 and appears to be in good health, has not yet said whether he is running for a ninth six-year term in 2028. But the Republican, who is the oldest person serving in Congress, has urged his constituents to vote for a Republican for governor. "I don't plan on dying in office, but if I did, I don't want a Democratic governor choosing my successor," Grassley said at a political event in Des Moines in late September 2026.

His comment points to the mechanics of Senate succession: under the Seventeenth Amendment, vacancies are filled by election, but state law can empower governors to make temporary appointments in the interim. The coming months will show how these threads converge — the November results for the 11 octogenarian nominees, McConnell's planned January 2027 departure and Grassley's decision on a ninth term will all help set the age profile of the next Congress.

Learning from palliative care

Forster-Holt and her colleagues found an unlikely way to think differently about leadership transitions: considering lessons about letting go from palliative care. Leaving political office or another leadership role is not the same as dying. But, as is true before someone develops a terminal medical condition, advance planning is most useful while people can still articulate what matters to them and exercise meaningful choices about what comes next.

She has learned that it is a mistake to treat succession as something to discuss only when a leader must move on for health or other reasons. So, in addition to her work as a management professor — and to inform her research, as well as the workshops she holds for aging business owners and members of their inner circles — she trained as an end-of-life doula. End-of-life doulas provide nonmedical support to people nearing death and their families. She did so because she lacked the vocabulary and tools that facilitate difficult conversations and decisions about legacy, and about what is important to a leader as they let go.

Palliative care supports the act of letting go long before death — the same challenge confronting business leaders and the companies they run.

When voters consider whether to support an aging incumbent, they may wonder whether that lawmaker is already too old for the demanding job, or soon will be. But that may be the wrong question. It might be better to ask whether the legislators who represent you, no matter their age, have a plan for letting go.

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Nancy Forster-Holt is Clinical Associate Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Rhode Island.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Source: Alternet