A growing number of young Democrats have launched primary bids against the party’s older members in recent months, underscoring the generational tensions that burst into the open following former Vice President Kamala Harris’s defeat in November.
Former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) this week drew a primary challenger 50 years his junior in Harry Jarin, who cast the long-serving lawmaker as representative of “a bygone era.” He follows a number of other young candidates who have filed to run or formally launched primary bids against veteran Democratic lawmakers. The Hill’s Julia Mueller reports the trend comes amid renewed anxiety within the party over the issue of age, a development spurred by new revelations about Biden and the recent deaths of a number of older House members.
“Six members of Congress have died in the last 16 months, and all of them were Democrats over age 65,” Jarin told The Hill. “So, I mean, I don’t see how you can look at the situation and not say, ‘Hey, we have a serious problem.’”