Politics

Young Democrats Go After Maxine Waters, Seem To Regret Their Decision

Screenshot/X/United States House Committee on Financial Services

A center-left group representing young Democrats deleted a post criticizing Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters’ age after receiving pushback from one of its members.

Majority Democrats took aim at Waters’ campaign to remain the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, according to Politico. The group deleted the post after Democratic New York Rep. Ritchie Torres expressed concerns about it with Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who chairs Majority Democrats.

“We respect everything Maxine Waters has done for her district and for America in her 88 years, but we also think that Democrats shouldn’t be enabling the gerontocracy that voters have repeatedly rejected,” the post read, according to a screenshot obtained by Politico.

Auchincloss did not see the post before it was published and is not in the chain of command for Majority Democrats’ social media, according to Politico. He agreed with the decision to remove the post.

A majority of Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee wrote a letter backing Waters as the party’s leader on the committee. She faces potential challenges from Democratic Illinois Reps. Sean Casten and Bill Foster.

Waters is 88 years old and first got married in 1956. She was first elected to Congress in November 1990 and took office in January 1991.

Majority Democrats released a video in July calling for committee term limits. The video featured a photo of Waters and more than a dozen other older Democrats, but did not mention her by name.

The group was founded in 2025 and includes several high-profile Democrats, including Texas Senate nominee James Talarico and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, according to its website.

Younger Democrats defeated older incumbents in Congress across the U.S. Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette of Colorado, Shri Thanedar of Michigan, John Larson of Connecticut and Adriano Espaillat of New York lost their races to candidates decades younger than them in the 2026 primary cycle.

Larson, a 78-year-old who has served in Congress since 1999, lost his primary by more than 20 percentage points to 47-year-old former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin. DeGette, Thanedar and Espaillat lost their races to candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which is on pace to field its largest congressional delegation in history.

DeGette, 69, lost to 29-year-old DSA candidate Melat Kiros in Colorado’s first congressional district.

Republican incumbents have held onto more of their House seats, though pro-establishment and older voters helped oust incumbents that did not align with President Donald Trump, who turned 80 in June. Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie lost his race to 68-year-old congressional candidate Ed Gallrein after the pro-Israel lobby spent over $9 million in mostly independent expenditures to oust him. The Baby Boomer generation overwhelmingly voted for Gallrein, while younger voters supported Massie.

Republican Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers, a 79-year-old incumbent, won his primary in May against four challengers.

Eighty-year-old Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey defeated 47-year-old Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton in the Sept. 1 primary.