By TRÂN NGUYỄN, SOPHIE BATES, JONATHAN MATTISE and SUSAN HAIGH
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Mai Vang wouldn’t be born for another seven years when Bob Matsui was first elected to Congress from California in 1978. By the time Matsui died in 2005 and was replaced by his widow, Doris Matsui, Vang was still studying biology and sociology in college.
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Now a member of the Sacramento City Council, Vang, 40, is mounting the first serious challenge 81-year-old Matsui has faced since she began representing the area two decades ago. Vang is among a nationwide cadre of young Democrats trying to oust some of their party’s most stalwart figures in Washington, channeling angst that an aging generation of lawmakers is unable or unwilling to mount a bare-knuckles opposition to President Donald Trump.
“I’m not waiting for permission,” Vang said. “Because our communities are under attack, and we need leaders in this moment that understand the day-to-day struggles of our working families, and I believe that I could be the leader in this moment.”
In Trump’s first term, grassroots Democrats focused their ire on the Republican president. But now, after President Joe Biden’s reluctance to step aside in 2024 at age 81 helped pave the way for Trump’s return to the White House, many see their party’s own veterans as part of the problem.
Matsui, who was born in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, said she’s fought Trump’s strict immigration policies and delivered billions of dollars for her district. She said in a statement experience is about “being effective when the stakes are highest for our families.”
Civil rights leader faces an economic populist
Evan Turnage had barely learned to walk when Rep. Bennie Thompson, a civil rights leader, was first elected to Congress from Mississippi.
Democrat Evan Turnage, who is challenging Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., in the March primary, poses for a portrait in Jackson, Miss., Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)
Now Thompson, 78, is one of the most senior Black lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and Turnage, 33, is challenging him in the state’s Democratic primary. Turnage, who’s also Black, is an antitrust lawyer who previously worked for top Senate Democrats in Washington, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
He said the modern era demands leaders who understand how social media and artificial intelligence are transforming life.
“Just steadily doing the committee work with your head down behind the scenes is not how we’re gonna get the transformational change that we need here in this district,” Turnage said.
Thompson formerly chaired the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump’s supporters.
“Elections were created to give people the ability to make a choice,” he said. “I trust the voters of the district.”
A congressman is challenged by a former intern
Rep. Steve Cohen, 76, of Tennessee, is running for an 11th term. He’s up against Justin Pearson, 31, who was a sixth grader promising better school lunches as president of the student government when Cohen was first elected to Congress. He later interned for Cohen.
Pearson was one of two Black Democrats expelled from the Tennessee Legislature by Republicans after leading a gun control protest inside the state Capitol building. He was quickly reinstated by local officials and later reelected.
FILE – Tennessee state lawmaker Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, speaks with reporters after meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, April 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
“With all due respect to Steve, he’s been in office for 43 years, and he has done the best that he can possibly do, and the status quo is still what it is,” Pearson said, tallying up Cohen’s time in the state legislature and in Congress.
Democrats have held their party back by hanging around too long, he said.
“Time and time again, we are seeing people who are staying in positions of power who are good people but who are no longer doing it for the benefit of their constituencies but for themselves,” Pearson said.
A polio survivor, Cohen has won nearly every election with more than 70% of the vote. Cohen said age shouldn’t be the criterion for judging a lawmaker and he’s never been status quo.
“I’ve always been an iconoclast,” he said in an interview.
Former mayor takes on a House veteran
In Connecticut, several Democrats in their 30s and 40s are challenging 77-year-old Rep. John Larson for the party’s endorsement at Connecticut’s Democratic state convention in May.
Luke Bronin, former mayor of Hartford, Conn., who is challenging Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., in the 2026 election primary, right, speaks with James Jeter, left, at the Semilla Cafe and Studio in Hartford on Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Susan Haigh)
Concerns about Larson’s health and age intensified last year after he abruptly stopped speaking during a speech on the House floor.
His office later said the 13-term lawmaker had suffered a complex partial seizure. Larson has said medication helps control the condition and he is fit to seek a 14th term.
Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 46, is widely viewed as the leading challenger, buoyed by his name recognition and fundraising. A Rhodes scholar, lawyer and U.S. Navy Reserve officer, Bronin was a sophomore at Yale when Larson was first elected to Congress.
Bronin said the Democratic Party has been too reluctant to embrace generational change.
“Part of meeting this moment means getting new members of Congress, new Democratic leaders who have the energy and courage and clarity of mission that this moment demands,” he said.
Larson is leaning on his progressive credentials and touting his experience as a virtue.
“Another Wall Street-funded corporate lawyer using this office as a stepping stone is not the kind of change this district needs,” Larson’s campaign manager, Gerry Gerratana, said in a statement. “It deserves a progressive champion like John Larson who grew up in the district, understands the challenges people face because he’s seen them firsthand, and has a proven record of taking on Trump.”
Bates reported from Jackson, Miss., Haigh from Hartford, Conn., and Mattise from Nashville, Tenn. Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
