A win in Texas for Democrats agitating for generational change energized primary challengers taking on long-serving incumbents in California next week.
The contests serve as early tests of whether Democratic voters are persuaded by arguments that the party needs new ideas and energy, or whether they opt to stick with known quantities who tout the value of their experience.
The Texas runoff between Reps.
Next week, California voters will head to the polls for primary elections that will, in multiple cases, also serve as referendums on septuagenarian and octogenarian lawmakers who’ve served for decades. Reps.
“The Democratic party had for a long time refused to build out its bench,” Menefee told Bloomberg Government. “And now, we’re starting to see that folks are passing the torch to the next set of leaders.”
Erin Covey, House analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said Green’s loss is the first that can be directly attributed to generational change. The Houston district’s last two representatives — Reps.
“This district understands the stakes of having an older member who, if they die in office, could essentially leave this district vacant for months,” Covey said.
‘Full-Scale Change’
The calls for new leadership ignited after Democrats suffered considerable losses in the 2024 election. Younger, grassroots organizers and voters have urged aging representatives to retire and allow new blood to enter Capitol Hill.
People want “full-scale change,” said Eric Jones, who is challenging Thompson in a district north of San Francisco. “It’s new leadership, it’s new people, it’s a new party vision.”
“We’ve had these people who’ve been hanging on for literally decades, they have not been delivering, and we want more,” said Jake Levine, Sherman’s top Democratic opponent.
Levine and Jones both outraised the incumbents they’re challenging.
In California, the state’s jungle primary often eliminates the possibility of a Democrat facing another Democrat – particularly in Matsui’s Sacramento district, where a sizable chunk of the electorate votes Republican. Matsui’s district, along with Thompson’s and Sherman’s, were all impacted by redistricting, though they’re rated as safe Democratic seats.
Mai Vang, Matsui’s primary challenger, is pairing attacks on the congresswoman’s age with an ideological angle, running to the left of Matsui. It’s a tactic several Democratic candidates are using in other states to try and ride the wave from the past presidential election.
Ads against Matsui, who is considered one of the most vulnerable California incumbents battling a primary challenger this cycle, knocked her for “decades” of siding with donors and called for a “new generation of leadership.”
Value of Experience
Seniority in the House can help incumbents secure more powerful committee positions and bring money home to their districts. Waters is the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, Matsui and Sherman hold subcommittee ranking member positions, and Thompson is a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
But Capitol Hill clout is an abstract concept that can be harder to grasp than youth and energy for voters who don’t closely follow Congress, said Rice University political science fellow Mark Jones, who researches Texas elections.
“One lesson from this election is that selling the idea of the benefits of seniority in the US House is a difficult message” to voters, he said.
Sherman defended the value of experience in an interview with Bloomberg Government.
“Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi have accomplished more since their 60th birthday than an awful lot of people will accomplish in their entire lives,” Sherman said. “If they hadn’t served into their 60s and even in their 70s, we’d be a lot poorer for it.”
Waters said during a Semafor event last week that members of Congress should “absolutely” be criticized and examined for the work they do and how they represent their constituents.
Matsui has emphasized her experience protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement and boasted about her endorsement from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Waters, Matsui, and Thompson’s offices didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Incumbent primary challenges have so far been unsuccessful. Rep.
Organizations like the Working Families Party, which is heavily involved in races like Vang and Matsui’s, say Menefee’s victory and the crop of younger leaders forcing competitive primaries show it’s “undeniable” that the Democratic base wants change regardless of incumbents’ ages.
“If government was working for regular people, they would be less concerned of what generation of leadership we have, but I think what voters, what everyday people are seeing, are aging politicians who are sitting on their hands, who are not acting in the interest of working people,” Ravi Mangla, national press secretary for the Working Families Party, said.
Sherman is facing a handful of Democratic opponents and one Republican contender. The congressman predicted the general election will be between him and GOP candidate Larry Thompson, 81, whom he’s previously defeated. Covey said age attacks on Sherman may fall flat.
“He’s everywhere, which is something that a lot of these other older members cannot say,” Covey said. “That is definitely a real asset for him.”