Businessweek Daily

What Do Democrats Want in the Senate? Youth

The shakeup in the Maine primary is just one example of millennials gaining favor in the party.

Rebecca Hartwell volunteers for US Senate candidate Graham Platner before an October town hall in Ogunquit, Maine.Photographer: Sophie Park/Getty Images

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By Joshua Green

May 1, 2026 at 5:21 PM UTC

At the start of the 119th Congress, the average age of a US senator was 63.9. Bloomberg Businessweek national correspondent Joshua Green writes today about how Democratic voters are looking to lower that figure significantly when the next Senate is sworn in. Plus: Why the NBA draft is bad for business, how experts are rethinking the timing of toilet training (free link), and a new episode of Everybody’s Business. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, click here to sign up.

Thursday’s news that Maine Governor Janet Mills is bowing out of the state’s US Senate race and effectively ceding the Democratic nomination to populist oysterman Graham Platner is the latest example of a trend many of the party’s voters welcome: Democratic Senate candidates are getting younger. Finally.