BY ZACHARY FLETCHER
In six short months I will vote in my third presidential election cycle. As a relatively recent voter—my first election was 2016, which feels like a long-forgotten memory rather than eight years ago—I have only two full presidential elections under my belt. Both of those elections included candidates nearly 50 years my senior. And two of those candidates—Joe Biden (81) and Donald Trump (77)—are again on the ballot. I would not be considered one of the more experienced voters.
Age is clearly on the ballot. Headlines in The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major outlets have put candidates’ ages under the microscope. Age has been the subject of opinion pieces, polls, and President Biden’s own speeches. But not everyone has such minimal voting context as I to pull from. Many voters today have been eligible to vote more than double the time I have been alive.
In our last (spring) issue, I asked younger voters what they thought of age in politics. But what about experienced voters? How do experienced voters feel about older candidates? Does voting longevity influence views on age and experience? What would they say to their younger voter selves?
Remembering Their First Time Voting
Curtis Graf, 68, is a general contractor living in Park City, Utah. The first time he remembers thinking about age during an election was when Ronald Reagan was on the ballot. “He wasn’t that old, comparatively,” Graf recalled thinking of Reagan at the time. Older age was something he remembers associating with local government officials only.
Donna Kelleran, 69, from Bellingham, Wash., first remembers voting when she was 18. Except for her time at college, she doesn’t recall ever missing voting in an election at either the national or state level.
Age isn’t an issue for Kelleran when voting for a candidate. “I’m looking for the quality of the person and their ability to get the job done,” she says. “Age plays no role anymore, in anything.”
In 1972, Randy Suhr, 70, of Seattle cast his first vote in a presidential election. At that time, Suhr doesn’t recall thinking about age. “I don’t think we thought of people being too old to govern based on their biological age. I think, if anything, we just thought they were all too old and out of touch with what we, the younger generation, were interested in.”
Suhr thinks that age is partially obscuring potential conversation around policy today. If people weren’t discussing age as a factor in the election, “then maybe we would be talking more about issues,” he says.
Focusing on Age vs. Experience
Kelleran notes that experience is the top priority for her when voting. “I’ll vote for you if you’re young, old, or whatever if I think you’re qualified,” she says.
The difference between biological age and experience is something that came up often while interviewing voters for this article. “I think you need a certain amount of age to have experience,” Graf says. But he is not exactly confident that a lifetime in the political sphere leads to better candidates. Career politicians risk being out of touch with everyday voters, which Suhr also mentions.
“I don’t want someone who’s had a lifetime in politics,” Graf says, “but I do want someone who’s had enough experience to know how the system works.” As a solution, Graf suggests implementing both age and term limits on candidates, an idea younger voters also suggested to me.
Kelleran describes the difference between younger and experienced voters as an issue of scope. “When you’re younger, you only have one or two policies that you’re interested in. I have a broader vision of what I need out of a candidate,” she says.
“One good thing age does is give you a broader view of what happens,” Suhr notes, of voting and seeing change (or stagnation), compared to voters who have less experience to draw from. My two election cycles don’t provide nearly as much context as Suhr’s 13.
While she did not express support for term limits like Graf, Kelleran advocates for a change in the way we see voters around her age.
Experienced voters—and politicians—are often viewed from an ageist perspective as “your grandparents, in the walkers,” Kelleran says. “That’s certainly a percentage of the population. But there are a lot of us out here who are not that way,” she adds. “So why are you focusing on, you know, that half or that third of the population? The rest of us, we’re not going down without a fight, and it’s not an easy fight.”
Looking to the past to see the intergenerational future
Graf has never declared for a political party in all his years as a voter. But looking back on his younger voter self, he sees room to have “work[ed]a little harder to educate myself.” Coming from a family of liberal voters, Graf says he discounted other sides of the political spectrum early on.
Suhr echoed that statement: “Looking back, I think what I would have said is get more involved.”
Graf also suggested becoming more active in politics earlier on. “Sooner is always better in politics. You don’t like the way things are going, why wait?”
Kelleran advocates for a wider acceptance of voters across the age spectrum. As a person growing up in the 1970s, she says her generation has been advocating for many of the same issues we face today since she cast her very first ballot. While she has “no problem passing the torch” to younger generations, Kelleran would like to see more intergenerational appreciation. “I think it’s about loving and honoring the younger generation for what they will bring to the party,” she says. But she also feels that the younger generation should “honor me for what I have brought to the party.”
“I think it’s smart of young people to question the age of their leaders. I have no problem with that,” Suhr says.
I also have no problem with that. But as a younger voter I think it’s still important to seek out guidance from those who have experience voting in elections—especially in elections beyond the past two cycles. But it will take voters of all ages—those who are new like me to those who have been voting for years— to change how we think about age in politics.
Kelleran advocates for a similar type of intergenerational thinking: “The generation that is alive today paved the road. We paved the way to openness, to voting rights, to women’s rights. Hell, the road now has potholes. It’s the younger generation that needs to fill them in and continue down the path.”
My Takeaway
In addition to encouraging early political involvement by younger voters, the experienced voters I interviewed all advocate for something important: context. Voting in the upcoming election is a small but important drop in the electoral bucket. Seeing how each vote lands throughout one’s electoral history—as these individuals have since their first vote at 18—is an important part of the process. Younger voters like me don’t have this decades-long perspective.
The candidate’s age is not what these seasoned voters are looking at. Experience and a candidate’s position on issues won out easily in our conversations. Maybe that’s because these voters have electoral comparisons to draw from over numerous election cycles. My context is based on just two very fraught elections. This made me reflect on how early in this process I am. These experienced voters showed me where it was possible to go—and how important it is to see one election within a broader scope. Until we gain more context, young voters like me might do well to consider the perspective experienced voters offer, and to listen and follow their lead.
Zachary Fletcher is a freelance journalist covering aging and other news, most recently for The Kitsap Sun/USA TODAY. His work has appeared in PBS’s Next Avenue and The Sacramento Bee, among other publications. He lives in Seattle with his partner. Learn more about him at https://fletcherzachary.weebly.com/.