Earlier this year, Gary Peters made a decision that's utterly ordinary for most 66-year-olds: He was going to retire. Except Peters happens to be a United States senator, so his announcement that he would not seek a third term next year came as a shock. 'Oh, but you're so young!' constituents told him, the Michigan Democrat recalled. Two weeks later, Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota said that she, too, would forgo a reelection bid next year, when she'll be 68. She got the same reaction. 'Only in the Senate can you be a 68-year-old grandma and still be considered fresh blood,' Smith told me with a laugh. When a swing-state member hangs it up in their senatorial prime'the chamber's median age is nearly 65'parties typically react with disappointment, even panic; open seats are harder to defend, after all, and early departures are treated as a vote of no confidence. But many in the party have greeted the recent wave of retirements with an unusual response: appreciation and relief. Smith...
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