LEXINGTON, Ky. – America’s elected officials are older than those in other countries, and Kentucky’s legislators seem to follow the trend. 

President Donald Trump is 74 and his challenger and former Vice President Joe Biden just turned 78. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is 80 and Senate President pro tem Charles Grassley is 87. 

The Center for Youth Political Participation at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University broke down the demographics of Kentucky’s Legislature after the 2018 election as part of its Young Elected Leaders Project, which collects and analyzes data on young elected officials across the country. Young Elected Leaders are defined as officials 35 years and younger. Generations are defined using guidelines set by the Pew Research Center. Generation Z includes those born between 1997-2012; Millennials were born between 1981-1996; members of Generation X were born between 1965-1980; Baby Boomers between 1946-1964; and the Silent Generation between 1928-1945.

The Kentucky State Legislature maintains age requirements for candidacy in the Senate (30)  and House (24).

The largest generation in Kentucky is the Baby Boomer Generation, consisting of about 26% of the population. The Millennial Generation and Gen X are the second-largest generations, each consisting of roughly 21% of the population. The smallest generation is the Silent Generation, consisting of about 12% of the population. About 85% of people in Kentucky are white, roughly 8% are Black, 3% are Hispanic or Latino, and 3% are another ethnicity.

About 5% of members of the Kentucky House of Representatives are Millennials. Additionally, Millennials also hold 5% of Kentucky Senate seats. The largest generation represented in the Kentucky State Legislature is the Baby Boomer Generation, comprising nearly 50% of the Kentucky House of Representatives and just more than 40% of the Kentucky State Senate. The Millennial Generation is underrepresented in the Kentucky State Legislature with nearly 21% of the population falling within the Millennial Generation. The Silent Generation maintains near proportionate representation (14%) within the Kentucky State Senate, the generation is 12% of the population. The average age of a Kentucky state legislator is 57. There are 5 Young Elected Leaders age 35 or younger in the legislature.

The average age of a member in the Kentucky House of Representatives is 56. The youngest member is 28 years old (Samara Heavrin) and the oldest member is 88 years old (Thomas Joseph Burch). 

The average age of the Kentucky Senate is 59. The youngest member is 33 years old (Phillip Matt Castlen) and the oldest member is 88 (Julian M. Carroll).

Thirty-one of Kentucky’s 138 legislators are female. On average, female legislators are a year younger than their male colleagues. There are two female Young Elected Leaders in the Kentucky House of Representatives and no female Young Elected Leaders in the Kentucky Senate. 

Approximately 27% of members of the Kentucky House of Representatives and about 11% of members of the Kentucky Senate are women.

Eighty percent of Kentucky state legislators are white. There are two Black members in the Kentucky State Senate, and six Black members in the Kentucky House of Representatives. There is one Hispanic member of the Kentucky Senate.

A majority of the members of the Kentucky House of Representatives and Kentucky State Senate are Republican. Despite this, of the five Young Elected Leaders in the Kentucky House of Representatives, three are Democrats and two are Republican. The one Young Elected Leader in the Kentucky Senate is a Republican.

Kentucky’s United States Congressmen have an average age of 59, with Rep. Andy Barr the youngest (47) and Rep. Hal Rogers (82) the oldest. Rep. Thomas Massie (49), Rep. James Comer (48), Barr, Rogers, and Rep. Brett Guthrie (56) are Republicans. Rep. John Yarmuth (72) is a Democrat. The average age of the United States House of Representatives is 58.

Republican United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is 78 and Republican Sen. Rand Paul is 57. The average age of the United States Senate is 62.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is 85 and “coasting to re-election” and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is 86, according to The New York Times.

While Americans consider two seniors for the presidency, Europeans have been electing younger candidates. Finland’s recently elected prime minister, Sanna Marin, is 34. The “Rulers, Elections and Irregular Government” dataset, created by Curtis Bell from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, shows the trend toward younger elected officials in other countries. The European Union’s current cohort of national leaders has a median age of 52. The group of 28 includes eight leaders under the age of 45. 

The number of “under age 40” world leaders who were elected to or inherited an elected office is robust. Most of the nations led by those 70 and older are in Asia and Africa and with very few exceptions, are men.

An opinion piece in The New York Times looked at why Americans elect older candidates, concluding, in part, that seniors are more likely to vote and voters may weigh candidates’ ages against their vitality and experience. 

In some European countries, prime ministers are not elected by popular vote but by fellow members of government — parliaments, for example — and the arc toward youth may be a play to constituents and a hope that the leader will be around for a while. Also, to get elected in the U.S. one has to be fairly well known and have a track record that will attract donors, or be rich yourself, according to the article.