Barbara Boxer decided she was done. Now in her 70s and recently re-elected to the U.S. Senate, she decided on her beliefs.
“I felt like now was the time,” Boxer said. “I wanted to do other things, too.”
Moreover, she knew that the Democratic bench was rich with many prospects, including Kamala Harris, who was on her way.
When Boxer retired in 2017 after 24 years in the Senate, he stepped down from one of the most powerful and privileged positions in American politics until his last breath.
(Boxer tried to nudge former Senate colleague Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, who was having a difficult final term in office, hours after the vote on the procedural issue on the Senate floor, ignoring calls to leave.)
Now, from Hawaii to Massachusetts, they are trying to force other senior politicians to bow to a new, younger generation of leaders, just as Boxer did. The movement is driven by the same feverish ambition that befalls political parties whenever they lose a demoralizing election such as this one.
It has become the highest-profile target.
Last week, she jumped into the race with a second major challenger for re-election, Saikat Chakrabarti, a tech billionaire who has been campaigning against the incumbent for the better part of a year.
Pelosi, who is 85 and has lived in San Francisco since Ronald Reagan was in the White House, is expected to announce later whether she will run again in 2026.
Boxer, who turns 85 next month, offered no advice to Pelosi, but Pelosi pushed back against the idea that age necessarily leads to frailty or political obsolescence. She pointed to two senators she served with who continued to have significant influence in Congress well into their 70s.
On the other hand, the boxer said, “Some people don’t deserve to be there for five minutes, let alone five years… They’re 50 years old. Is that OK? No. Some people are 60 years old and out of ideas.”
Boxer said there is no “one-size-fits-all” metric for determining when a lawmaker’s term expires. Voters should focus on what motivates someone to remain president, she suggested. Are they driven by purpose and still capable of getting the job done? “Or is it a personal ego or psychological thing?”
“My last six years have been the most prolific.” Boxer said he opposes both term limits and a mandatory retirement age for members of Congress. “And if they had said it was over when I turned 65, I wouldn’t have been there.”
Art Agnos did not choose to resign.
When he served one term as mayor of San Francisco, he was 53 years old — still a youthful age compared to today’s Democratic Party elders.
“I was running for re-election because I was at the peak of my powers,” he said. “And frankly, at 87, I still feel like I’m in my prime,” he adds with a laugh.
Agnos, a friend and longtime ally of Pelosi, was furious at the ageism directed at a generation of lawmakers. Why is it tolerated in politics, he asked, when it is condemned in almost every other field?
“What kind of job do we want someone to have because they’ve never done a job like this before, and they’re smart, young, and right?” Agnos asked rhetorically. “Why don’t you go and say, “Let me find a neurosurgeon who has never done this surgery before, but he is bright, young, and has great potential.” We don’t do that. is that so?
“Show me someone who has experience. Tell me someone who has been through this situation and knows how to deal with a crisis or a particular problem,” Agnos said.
Pete Wilson took office earlier than he had hoped because term limits forced him out (before that, he served 11 years).
“I thought I did a good job… and a number of people said, ‘Well, it’s too bad you can’t run for a third term,'” Wilson said while heading to New Haven, Conn., to attend his college’s reunion, Yale’s Class of 55. “Actually, I agreed with them.”
Still, unlike Boxer, Wilson supports term limits as a way to inject new blood into the political system and prevent too many overachieving incumbents from inadvertently overstaying their terms in office.
It’s not like he’s unaware of the urge to hang on. force. Benefits. And perhaps most of all, the desire to get things done.
Mr. Wilson, 92 years old and an active lawyer in Century City, said without hesitation, “Yes!” When asked if he thought he could still serve as governor today despite having spent 100 years on earth, he exclaimed.
I could hear my wife, Gail, giggling in the background.
“She’s smiling,” Wilson said dryly. “Because she knows I’m not putting her at risk by doing that.”
