76 percent in new poll favor age cap for president

Nearly three-fourths of Americans say there should be a ceiling for how old someone can be to serve as president in a new The Economist/YouGov poll.

Seventy-six percent of Americans said there should “be a maximum age for someone in the U.S. to serve as” president in the poll. A similar percentage of Americans said there should be a cap on that age to serve in the Senate and as a member of Congress in general. 

These results come as questions about the age and health of politicians have swirled in the U.S. recently. Both presumed Democratic and Republican nominees for president, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, are over the age of 70. 

Biden is 80 and polls suggest an increasing number of Democratic voters are worried over his age. Trump is 77 years old.

In the Senate, GOP leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) froze-up at a press conference last week for the second time in a matter of weeks, raising questions about his own age and health problems. Despite this, a Capitol doctor cleared McConnell “to continue with his schedule as planned” a day later.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is another prominent case of a politician whose age and health concerns have made national news recently. She was absent from the Senate for months due to shingles and encephalitis earlier this year.

The poll was taken from Sep. 2 to 5, featuring answers from 1,500 U.S. citizens aged 18 and up and has a margin error of 3.3 percent, according to a poll description.