War on gerontocracy

Dems unleash House primary challenges in war on gerontocracy

Frustration with the status quo is fueling an intra-party struggle in California.

By Jeremy B. White

California is fast becoming the front line in the Democrats’ generational, intraparty war.

Long a haven for aging politicians, the state has suddenly become the tip of the spear for national Democrat-on-Democrat hostilities: Fully half of the state’s older House Democrats are set to face same-party challengers next year, with Rep. Mike Thompson the latest to draw an opponent.

It’s an eruption of the frustrations roiling national Democrats as a younger generation seeks to take over an aging party that it argues enabled the return of President Donald Trump. They are haunted by questions about former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity and memories of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sen. Dianne Feinstein dying in office.

While similar challenges are unfolding in blue bastions like Massachusetts and Maryland, the same-party struggle is especially striking in California, a Democratic stronghold where a culture of hierarchical deference is cracking under the weight of pervasive dissatisfaction with politicians who have been in office for decades. Even in resolutely blue San Francisco, Democrats pushed to impose age limits.

“The way this country has now moved into pretty dangerous territory, with all the hallmarks and characteristic of an autocracy — you’ve just got to think the leaders who have led us to this moment are probably not the ones who are going to help get us out of it,” said Jake Levine, one of multiple Democrats challenging Rep. Brad Sherman, a 70-year-old, 15-term incumbent in Los Angeles.

Democrats have cast next year’s midterm election as voters’ best chance to thwart Trump’s agenda by wresting control of the House from Republicans. In California, that includes rallying behind a ballot campaign for new maps that could force out a half-dozen Republican incumbents, offsetting or neutralizing a gerrymander in Texas sought by Trump.

But for some longtime incumbents in safe seats, Republicans won’t be the issue. Like Sherman and Thompson, who is 74, Rep. Doris Matsui and ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both octogenarians, have drawn young opponents who argue they are channeling deep voter dissatisfaction with entrenched officeholders who are no longer up to the task.

The challengers are hoping to exploit a rapidly shifting media landscape that makes it easier for lesser-known candidates to break through, as Zohran Mamdani did in New York’s mayoral primary with viral campaign videos. And they are running despite warnings that their gambits will backfire by diverting resources badly needed to win swing districts.

“You have a Democratic establishment that’s run California now not just for a generation but for two,” said Eric Jaye, a San Francisco-based consultant. “You have these ideological fissures coming to the fore, generational fissures coming to the shore, and exhaustion with the status quo.”

Eric Jones, a 34-year-old venture capitalist challenging Thompson in his Napa Valley district, burst out of the gate with more than $1 million raised in 24 hours, warning in an interview that Democrats had become “the party of the elite” as the American Dream receded out of many voters’ reach. Saikat Chakrabarti, a former campaign aide and staffer to Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, said in an interview that Democrats like Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco since 1987, had failed to adapt to the Trump era.

“When Nancy Pelosi first got into Congress, you still had a Republican Party that believed in democracy,” Chakrabarti said.

Chakrabarti said his political tactics have shifted since Ocasio-Cortez unseated Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley in a watershed upset during Trump’s first term. He has coordinated with fellow-travelers like Jones to achieve the sort of wholesale turnover he now sees as necessary to revive the party.

“The view was, ‘Let’s get a few new people into the Democratic Party and try to push the establishment,’” he said. “I think that time is over. We need to replace the establishment.”

Thompson said in an interview that he understands voters “want Democrats to do more,” a sentiment he has heard again and again in town hall meetings. But he warned challengers were drawing the wrong lesson from the 2024 election.

“Any time an election has gone south there is always a need to soul-search, to figure out what went wrong, what happened,” Thompson said. “I don’t think it’s a problem that’s going to be solved by more Democrats taking on other Democrats.”

Similarly, a representative for Sherman said in a statement that challengers were “misguided at best” and risked buoying Republicans by shattering Democratic unity.

“During this unprecedented time where democracy is under siege by a dictator, these primaries will pull resources away from vital battleground districts that will determine who controls Congress in 2026,” spokesperson Dave Jacobson said.

For years, ambitious Democrats in California have bumped up against an immovable career ceiling: House members with effective lifetime gigs.

Now, more Democrats are willing to defy the expectation that they wait their turn, said Flojaune Cofer, a former mayoral candidate and ally of Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang, who has filed paperwork to challenge Matsui.

“I’m really excited to see more people saying, ‘Just because you’ve been there doesn’t mean we’re going to defer to that — we want to see some action, we want to see some results,’” Cofer said.

Even with the recent departures of longtime incumbents, California’s 51-member House delegation includes nine members in their 70s and 80s. Mounting restlessness spurred a San Francisco Democratic Party member to float a resolution this year urging age limits for House incumbents, although he insisted he was not targeting Pelosi herself.

“I saw Democrats were in the wilderness and unwilling to address what was staring everyone in the face in light of President Biden and Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Dianne Feinstein,” said Eric Kingsbury. “People are clamoring for new blood, they’re clamoring for the next generation to lead. It’s existential for Democrats.”

Many will still be uphill battles. Pelosi has swatted away challenges from the left with ease, although none had Chakrabarti’s resources or political ties. Sherman survived an epic clash with fellow Democrat Howard Berman.

“Some of them may make a splashy start but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ready to battle the federal Democratic machine,” said Marva Diaz, a political strategist and publisher of an elections guide called the California Target Book.

Diaz also questioned the idea that newer members could effect the kinds of changes they believe voters want, echoing a point long raised by Feinstein’s allies.

“Our most seasoned members have the most prime ability to make changes — they have the best committee assignments,” Diaz said. “They will get to Congress and be a freshman among hundreds and not really be able to do anything to help us back home.”

But change is in the air, Jaye said, and aspirants can sense it.

“They’re all looking at each other: ‘Maybe I can wait, but Councilman Smith may not wait,’” said Jaye. “There’s a lot of chatter. They’re all talking about it because they understand a window has opened.”