Report: Americans Want a Retirement Age for Political Leaders and Supreme Court Justices

The September 2023 Daily Kos/Civiqs Poll asked 1,149 registered voters in the United States about a mandatory retirement age for federal government officials, federal spending and the U.S. economy, the 2024 presidential election, and the indictment of Donald Trump in Georgia.

American Gerontocracy

With concerns about the age of leaders in the United States in the news, large majorities of Americans across political parties support a mandatory retirement age for U.S. Senators, Supreme Court Justices, and the President. Three-quarters of Americans (74%) think that there should be a retirement age for U.S. Senators; 67% want a retirement age for Supreme Court Justices; and 58% support a retirement age for U.S. Presidents.

Democrats are especially focused on a retirement age for Supreme Court Justices: 78% of Democrats support the idea, while 55% of Republicans feel the same way.

Americans are concerned about both Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s age affecting their ability to serve as president -- but much more so about Biden than Trump. For Biden, 75% of voters say they are either very (53%) or somewhat (22%) concerned about his age. That includes 50% of Democrats and 70% of Democrats under age 35.

Voters are divided over Donald Trump’s age ​​affecting his ability to serve as president, with half (49%) saying they are either very concerned (28%) or somewhat concerned (21%). Fully 71% of Republican voters say that Trump’s age is not a concern for them.

2024 Presidential Election

Most voters (61%) currently expect that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president in 2024. Ron DeSantis (7%) and Nikki Haley (5%) trail Trump as the next most likely nominees.

If Donald Trump is the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, 55% of Americans say they would definitely (52%) or probably (3%) vote for someone else. About a third (32%) say they would definitely vote for Trump in 2024, and 11% would probably vote for him, similar to the results of a July 2023 Daily Kos/Civiqs poll.

Voters feel slightly more positive towards Joe Biden’s candidacy for reelection in 2024: 46% of voters would definitely (34%) or probably (12%) vote for Biden. However, 49% of voters say they would definitely vote for someone else, and 3% say they would probably vote for someone else.

Based on the charges in the recent indictment of Donald Trump in Georgia, 49% of Americans think that Trump should be sent to jail. A majority (54%) think that Donald Trump is either guilty of all charges (48%) or guilty of some but not all charges (6%) in the indictment. There are 41% who believe that Trump is not guilty of any of the charges in the Georgia indictment, including 80% of Republicans.

Federal Spending and the U.S. Economy

The survey asked voters if they thought a variety of U.S. government spending priorities and the organized labor movement are good or bad for the national economy.

Most voters believe that the federal government paying down the national debt would be good for the United States economy. This opinion is held by 82% of Americans overall, and 91% of Republicans, 79% of Independents, and 75% of Democrats.

Next, 79% of voters think that increasing federal spending on transportation infrastructure would be good for the U.S. economy. Of those, 55% think it would be very good, and 24% believe it would be somewhat good. Almost all Democrats (94%) think that infrastructure spending would be good for the economy, while 76% of Independents and 65% of Republicans feel the same way.

Voters are more divided over the economic impact of federal investment in clean energy production, like wind, solar, hydroelectric, and geothermal power. While a majority (53%) think that investing in clean energy would be very (43%) or somewhat (10%) good for the U.S. economy, 37% believe that this would be a bad thing.

Americans believe that increasing funding to the IRS to improve auditing and the enforcement of laws focused on wealthy taxpayers and big corporations would be good (51%) for the economy rather than bad (40%). Democrats and Republicans are on opposite sides of this issue: 88% of Democrats think increasing IRS funding would be good, while 78% of Republicans think it would be bad.

Voters see more workers joining labor unions as a good thing for the U.S. economy, by a margin of 50% (good) to 30% (bad). Democrats tend to view unionization as a good thing (84%), while most Republicans view it as a bad thing (57%). Another 14% of voters overall believe that more unionized workers would be neither good nor bad for the United States economy.

Civiqs surveyed 1,149 registered voters in the United States from September 9-12, 2023. The survey was conducted online, among selected members of the Civiqs research panel. Sampled individuals were emailed by Civiqs and responded using a personalized link to the survey at civiqs.com. The survey results are weighted by age, race, gender, education, party identification, and region to be representative of the population of registered voters in the United States. The general design effect due to weighting is 1.10. The survey has a margin of error of ±3.0% at the 95% confidence level, accounting for the design effect.