Lindsey Graham Dead at 71: Full List of Senators Beyond Retirement Age

The sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and the monthlong hospitalization of Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, have renewed scrutiny of the advanced ages in Congress’ upper chamber, where the average member is now 65 and more than one-third are 70 or older.

Graham died Saturday night, two days after his 71st birthday. His office described the cause only as a “brief and sudden illness.” Preliminary findings show he died of an aortic dissection tied to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to a statement. He was in the middle of a reelection campaign he had been expected to win.

Graham’s death came as McConnell, 84, remained in a rehabilitation facility following a hospitalization that began June 14. Together, the two cases have put a spotlight on an institution in which lawmakers routinely serve into their 80s and 90s, although questions about fitness for office are rarely raised until a health crisis forces the issue.

How Old Is the Senate

Of the 99 sitting senators, the average age is 65.1 and the median is 66, according to a Newsweek analysis of legislator birth records. Thirty-six senators are 70 or older, eight are 80 or older, and one, Senator Chuck Grassley, am Iowa Republican, is 92. Grassley, third in line to the presidency as Senate president pro tempore, leads the Judiciary Committee and has pointed to his continued corn farming as evidence that he remains fit for office.

Broken into brackets, the chamber’s composition is eight senators in their 40s, 22 in their 50s, 33 in their 60s, 28 in their 70s, seven in their 80s and Grassley alone in his 90s.

The two parties are close to even on age. Republicans average 64.9 years old among their 52 senators, while Democrats average 64.6 among 45. The gap widens at the higher ages, where Republicans hold 17 seats among senators in their 70s to Democrats’ 11.

The trajectory has been steady for decades. The average age of House members has risen to 58, up from 52 in 1960, while the average Senate age has climbed to 63, up from 57, according to Boise State University political scientist Charlie Hunt, writing in 2024. The Senate’s current 65.1 average is higher still, reflecting the continued aging of lawmakers who have not retired since the figure was calculated.

Pew Research Center found that the Senate’s median age dipped slightly to 64.7 when the current Congress was sworn in last year, down from 65.3 in 2023, though turnover from retirements and elections has done little to reverse the long-term climb. Nearly one-quarter of the House and Senate combined, 131 lawmakers, are now 70 or older.

Full List: Senators 70 and Older

Thirty-six of the Senate’s 99 members are 70 or older, more than one-third of the chamber. Here is each one, ranked from oldest to youngest:

• Chuck Grassley, 92, Republican, Iowa
• Bernie Sanders, 84, independent, Vermont
• Mitch McConnell, 84, Republican, Kentucky
• James E. Risch, 83, Republican, Idaho
• Angus S. King, Jr., 82, independent, Maine
• Richard J. Durbin, 81, Democrat, Illinois
• Richard Blumenthal, 80, Democrat, Connecticut
• Edward J. Markey, 80, Democrat, Massachusetts
• Jeanne Shaheen, 79, Democrat, New Hampshire
• Peter Welch, 79, Democrat, Vermont
• Mazie K. Hirono, 78, Democrat, Hawaii
• Ron Wyden, 77, Democrat, Oregon
• Elizabeth Warren, 77, Democrat, Massachusetts
• Jack Reed, 76, Democrat, Rhode Island
• Roger F. Wicker, 75, Republican, Mississippi
• John Boozman, 75, Republican, Arkansas
• Mike Crapo, 75, Republican, Idaho
• Patty Murray, 75, Democrat, Washington
• Charles E. Schumer, 75, Democrat, New York
• Deb Fischer, 75, Republican, Nebraska
• James C. Justice, 75, Republican, West Virginia
• John Cornyn, 74, Republican, Texas
• Marsha Blackburn, 74, Republican, Tennessee
• John Kennedy, 74, Republican, Louisiana
• John W. Hickenlooper, 74, Democrat, Colorado
• John Barrasso, 73, Republican, Wyoming
• Susan M. Collins, 73, Republican, Maine
• Rick Scott, 73, Republican, Florida
• Shelley Moore Capito, 72, Republican, West Virginia
• Jerry Moran, 72, Republican, Kansas
• Mark R. Warner, 71, Democrat, Virginia
• Ron Johnson, 71, Republican, Wisconsin
• Mike Rounds, 71, Republican, South Dakota
• Cynthia M. Lummis, 71, Republican, Wyoming
• Tommy Tuberville, 71, Republican, Alabama
• Sheldon Whitehouse, 70, Democrat, Rhode Island

Deaths in Office, in Context

Graham’s death was the first of a sitting senator since California Democrat Dianne Feinstein died in 2023 at age 90 after a prolonged physical and mental decline. It also continued a string of deaths in the current Congress. Texas Democrat Sylvester Turner, 70, died in March 2025, just weeks after taking office. Days later, Arizona Democrat Raúl Grijalva, 77, died, followed by Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly, 75, in May 2025. California Republican Doug LaMalfa, 65, died in January 2026, and Georgia Democrat David Scott, 80, died later that spring.

Including Graham, at least 17 members of Congress have died in office since 2020, compared with 12 during the entire 2010s. The current decade has not yet surpassed the 19 congressional deaths recorded in the 2000s or the 29 in the 1980s, according to Congressional Research Service data. But six deaths in the current Congress over roughly a year and a half have renewed debate over age limits and mandatory retirement for federal lawmakers, proposals that have circulated in Washington for years without gaining traction.

The Senate has no rule for determining when a member is incapacitated and no requirement that health issues be disclosed at all, unlike the mandatory financial disclosures senators must file. That gap played out in 2023, when Feinstein’s nearly three-month absence deadlocked the Judiciary Committee and stalled judicial nominees. Democrats asked to temporarily replace her so the committee could keep working. Graham, then the panel’s ranking Republican, objected, and McConnell, then minority leader, backed him, saying the Senate would not go along with “sidelining a temporarily absent colleague,” according to The Washington Post. Feinstein kept her seat, some nominations stayed stalled, and she died in office that September.

Now Graham is dead and McConnell is the temporarily absent colleague, with the Appropriations Committee facing a similar standstill in his absence.

Case for and Against Experience

Backers of a senior Senate argue that institutional memory, deep policy expertise and seniority-based committee power are assets that newer members cannot replicate. Grassley’s role atop the Judiciary Committee, and Sanders’ continued influence over the Democratic Party’s left flank, are frequently cited as evidence that age alone does not diminish a lawmaker’s effectiveness or leverage.

Critics point to a pattern of high-profile declines that played out in public, including Feinstein’s final years in office, when aides and colleagues described her as at times unable to recall basic details of her job, and McConnell’s repeated falls and freezing episodes before his current hospitalization.

Rohan Patel, executive director of Majority Democrats, a political action committee that backs younger candidates, told The New York Times that the recent run of deaths in office reflects a culture in which lawmakers would rather stay until they die than clear the way for a new generation to address problems most of them have not faced in decades.

"The constant deaths in office we've seen over the last few years aren't shocking when you have a gerontocracy where too many elected officials would rather die at their desks than let anyone new fix people's problems," he said.

Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff who has pushed for a mandatory retirement age of 75 across all three branches of government, put it more bluntly to the Times: “You’re not hitting your stride at 78.”

Advocacy groups pushing for generational turnover argue that a Senate weighted toward members in their 70s, 80s and 90s is more prone to prolonged absences, sudden vacancies and diminished capacity, at a cost to constituents and to the functioning of the chamber itself.

Proposals regarding limits on how long politicians can hold their positions have been brought up in the past, and 37 states already have term limits for governors, while 16 others have term limits for legislators.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Dave Siminoff.

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This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 2:30 PM.