Assessing Congressional Vitality: Who to Vote Out in 2026

Congress has 131 members older than 70 years old. Twenty-four members are over 80. Some have held their seats for more than four decades. And most face no meaningful electoral challenge whatsoever.

That's not a workforce. That's a gerontocracy and it has real consequences for the people these members are supposed to represent.

DNR Congress exists to change that dynamic. Not by attacking individual members for their age, but by making the full picture visible: age, health, electoral accountability, legislative effectiveness, and ethical standing, all in one place, scored against a consistent standard.

The Problem Isn't Age. It's Unaccountability.

A sharp, effective 78-year-old in a competitive district who faces real primary challengers and shows up to vote? That member is accountable. They're earning their seat.

But an 85-year-old with documented health concerns, 44 years of seniority, a district so safe it's never seriously contested, and colleagues quietly expressing concerns about their capacity to lead? That member has no accountability and voters deserve to know it.

That distinction is the entire basis of the Congressional Vitality Index.

Introducing the Congressional Vitality Index

The CVI scores every member we evaluate on a 0–100 scale across five categories — 20 points each:

Age & Tenure. Objective, rigid scoring based on current age and years served. This category doesn't adjust for vigor or personality, those factors belong elsewhere. An 80-year-old always receives the same age score, period.

Electoral Vulnerability. How close was the last election? Are credible primary challengers in the race? Safe seats with no challengers represent the clearest democratic accountability failure, this category captures that.

Health & Capacity. Documented health incidents only, hospitalizations, extended absences, official statements, reported concerns from colleagues. No speculation, no diagnoses, no rumors. Every claim is sourced and cited.

Effectiveness & Relevance. Legislative output, committee roles, leadership positions gained or lost. Are they actually doing the job? Committee chairs and active bill sponsors score well; members stripped of positions or legislatively dormant score poorly.

Controversy & Scandals. Ethics investigations, FEC violations, watchdog findings, constituent responsiveness. Sourced from official records, the Office of Congressional Ethics, CREW's most corrupt lists, FEC filings, and credible investigative reporting.

Members receive a status based on their total score: Prime (90–100), Fading (70–89), Life Support (50–69), Critical Condition (30–49), or Flatlined (0–29).

What We've Found So Far

Our initial cohort includes the members with the highest combination of low vitality scores and meaningful primary challengers.  The cases where public attention matters most right now.

Rep. David Scott (GA-13) is one of the most striking cases in the current Congress. At 79, Scott lost his Agriculture Committee ranking position in December 2024 after missing two weeks for back treatment. Fellow Democrats publicly cited concerns about his ability to communicate and lead. He received a score of 33 — Critical Condition.   Frankly, we feel like this was a generous score.  Two state legislators have entered the May 2026 primary.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (MD-5) suffered a stroke in August 2024. At 85, with 44 years in office, he was facing multiple primary challengers including a 35-year-old candidate making generational change the centerpiece of his campaign. Hoyer would be 89 years old at the end of the next term. CVI score: 64 — Life Support.  Hoyer has since dropped out of the primary.  We commend him for his loyal service and wish him the best.  Hopefully the people of his district will embrace the gift of having more vital representation.

Rep. Hal Rogers (KY-5)  is 88 years old and has served for 44 years — making him the Dean of the House and one of the longest-serving members in Congressional history. Despite his age and tenure, Rogers represents one of the safest Republican districts in the country, winning his last election by 68 percentage points with no serious challenger. While Rogers has no documented health crises, his combination of advanced age, four decades of entrenchment, and complete lack of electoral accountability places him squarely in the accountability crisis this index was designed to identify. CVI score: 41 — Critical Condition.

The Rigor Behind the Scores

This methodology was built to be defensible, not just provocative. Every factual claim traces to a sourced document. Health incidents are drawn from major news outlets, official statements, and Congressional records only. We don't publish rumors, speculate about diagnoses, or include claims we can't verify.

Age and tenure scoring is entirely rigid — the same member gets the same points regardless of how sharp they seem. That's intentional. Those factors are objective. The more contextual categories — health, effectiveness, controversy — use nuanced scoring that accounts for severity, documentation, and circumstances.

The exact scoring weights and point allocations remain proprietary. We're transparent about what we evaluate, age, tenure, electoral vulnerability, health, effectiveness, and ethics, but not the precise formulas. This protects the methodology from being gamed. The system works because it reflects democratic reality, not because incumbents can manipulate it.

We also maintain a corrections policy. If something is wrong, we want to know. Democratic accountability has to start with us.

What You Can Do With This Information

The CVI isn't meant to be consumed passively. It's built to enable action.

Check your district. See where your representative falls on the index. You may be surprised.

Contact your representative. We've built call scripts and email templates specifically for constituents who want to raise these concerns directly, respectfully, and effectively.

Pledge support to a challenger. When a credible primary challenger runs in your district, being on a list of early supporters matters. Our pledge system connects you to those campaigns when they announce.

Share the scores. Party establishments aren't going to have this conversation. Media will cover it when it becomes unavoidable. The only way it becomes unavoidable is if enough people are talking about it.

Not Ageism. Democracy.

We'll say it clearly, because it gets asked: this isn't about punishing people for getting old. Age is one factor among five. A competitive, healthy, effective, scandal-free 75-year-old scores well here. That's the point.

What we're tracking is what happens when age combines with entrenchment, declining capacity, safe districts, and zero electoral pressure to create representatives who are functionally unaccountable. That's a democratic crisis, not an age problem.

Primary season starts in March. The window to make this cycle count is now.

See the full CVI scores at dnrcongress.com.

Scoring Congressional Vitality. Fueling Democratic Accountability.