'Immature' Representatives: Age Eligibility Requirements & Youth Representation

• In Event: Poster Session: State Politics and Policy & Law and Courts
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: State Politics & Policy

Abstract

The role that youth in the United States play as voters and activists has received heightened
attention from both academics and the media in recent years. Yet, the representation of young
adults in legislative bodies has received notably less attention. While previous literature has argued
that the paucity of young representatives (those between ages 18-35) is due to their general
disinterest in political participation, others suggest that young adult’s underrepresentation may
largely be a product of institutional obstacles such as candidate age requirements (see Krook and
Nugent, 2018; Stockemer and Sundström, 2020). In this paper, we examine how variations in
candidate age requirements for state legislative office across the United States may impact
descriptive representational outcomes. Drawing on a unique dataset of all state legislative
candidates and elected officials from 2018, we investigate the degree to which macro-level factors,
like age requirements, determine young adults’ numeric representation across state legislatures.
Our research contributes to the literature on political representation and builds on recent
scholarship within American Politics that focuses on young adults as elite political actors (see
Lawless and Fox, 2015; Shames, 2017; Alter, 2019). It further speaks to ongoing debates about
young-adult citizenship and the advancement of youth political engagement. Ultimately, we hope
that our investigation promotes further consideration of age as a category of political
marginalization and exclusion so that we may also begin investigating ways to increase young
adult’s presence in legislative bodies.

Authors

• Cecilia Ritacco, Georgetown University

• Brit Anlar, Rutgers University