Senate Democrats Are About To Get A Lot Younger

With 80 year old Senate Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin announcing his retirement, Senate Democrats are going to welcome a group of new younger Senators in 2026.

Apr 23, 2025

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Sen. Dick Durbin has been in the Senate for nearly 30 years and a fixture in Senate Democratic leadership, but his retirement from the US Senate seat in Illinois was telegraphed by the fact that he was raising no money for his reelection campaign next year.

In his announcement, Durbin, who is also the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it was time to pass the torch. However, Durbin is far from the only Senate Democrat to announce their retirement.

Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Tina Smith (D-MN) have also announced their retirements. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado isn’t retiring, but he is running for governor and the odds-on favorite to win his home state.

All of these seats, outside of potentially Michigan, are expected not to be candidates to flip to Republicans, but even Michigan looks unlikely given the carnage that Trump is overseeing to the economy and the country.

This all adds up to potentially more than 10% of the Senate Democratic caucus turning over and getting younger. One of the concerns about this group of Senate Democrats when Trump came back into office was whether these more experienced incumbents would sense the urgency of the situation and react accordingly.

The Senate Democrats, or specifically a small group of them led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, got off to a bad start by caving to Trump on the CR, but since then have turned it around and been much more active in the fight.

Whether it is Cory Booker or Chris Van Hollen, from Chris Murphy to Bernie Sanders, members of the Senate Democratic caucus have been showing up, and while Republicans are stuck with a decaying president, Democrats are in the midst of a generational change.

What do you think about the changing Democratic Senate caucus? Share your thoughts in the comments below.