Skip to content

From silent to millennial, generations of the Democratic presidential field

The growing primary roster now ranges in age from 37 to 77

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, represent the range of generations making up the 2020 Democratic presidential field. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, represent the range of generations making up the 2020 Democratic presidential field. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

From silent to millennial

Say this for the Democrats, they are multigenerational. 

Their presidential field continued to swell as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who affiliates with Democrats, announced he was running and promptly raised millions of dollars to show his campaign apparatus was doing just fine. 

With the addition of the 77-year-old Sanders, the Democrats have already pulled off a demographic quadrella. There are millennials like Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, both 37; Gen Xers like former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, 44, and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, 49; boomers like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 69; and guys like Sanders, a silent generation dude. 

Leah Askarinam of Inside Elections discussed the burgeoning roster of Democrats on the latest Political Theater Podcast.

Tar Heel twist

Speaking of political theater, it was hard to look away this week from the North Carolina State Board of Elections. The board convened a multiday hearing into the disputed 9th District race between Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready. It featured, among other things, stirring testimony of family members, allegations of skullduggery and a twist ending with Harris providing strange comments during testimony before calling for a new election and the board obliging. Politics keeps finding new ways to surprise us

The race is on

With North Carolina ordering a new race in the 9th District, that makes for three special House elections already this year. (The others are in Pennsylvania’s 12th, where Republican Tom Marino resigned last month, and in North Carolina’s 3rd to replace the late GOP Rep. Walter B. Jones.) 

What about the normal 2020 cycle for the House? Glad you asked. Nathan L. Gonzales and his crack Inside Elections staff is out with their first round of House race ratings. To start off, there are 39 vulnerable Democratic seats and 29 vulnerable Republican ones. Want to know Nathan’s formula? He’s even included a video explainer. (Warning: There might be Drive Like Jehu and Mountain Dew involved.)

Got you covered, congressional staffers

Roll Call’s monthly Staffer News edition is out, and there’s a little something for everyone: How frosh phenom Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York pays her staff; folks dealing with chatty or even abusive constituent phone calls; the path a former staffer took to winning a House race and how she’s staffing up herself; and the ways that the greening the Capitol efforts extends to individuals

We’ve also got some stuff about drugs and a dude who dresses up in a polar bear suit. That’d be Frostpaw. You can’t miss him.  

Border personality

Subscribe to this podcast below

Subscribe on iTunesListen on StitcherListen on RADiO PUBLiCListen on Spotify

 

Recent Stories

Mayorkas impeachment headed to Senate for April 11 trial

Muslim American appeals court nominee loses Democratic support

At the Races: Lieberman lookback

Court says South Carolina can use current congressional map

Joseph Lieberman: A Capitol life in photos

‘Take the money and run’: Obama, Clinton to raise campaign cash for Biden at A-list NYC event