Campaign Generational change becomes focal point in Texas, North Carolina Democratic battles by Caroline Vakil - 03/01/26 6:00 AM ET by Caroline Vakil - 03/01/26 6:00 AM ET Share ✕ LinkedIn LinkedIn Email Email NOW PLAYING Several Democratic primaries in Texas and North Carolina are teeing up generational battles in the party. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), 78, is facing a challenge from newly-elected 37-year-old Rep. Christian Menefee (D-Texas) in Texas’s redrawn 18th Congressional District in the Houston area.  Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), 69, is fending off a primary challenge from 32-year-old Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam in North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District.  Both contests could offer clues about whether Democratic voters want to see generational change in their officeholders. Democrats have been mired in a fierce debate over generational change and experience ever since former President Biden’s presidential debate against President Trump in 2024 brought the issue of age and fitness front and center for the party. Since Trump’s defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, a growing number of Democrats have urged older incumbents to retire from Congress, arguing it’s time to pass the baton. Nowhere has the issue of age played out more than in Houston’s 18th Congressional District, where two older lawmakers, — Democratic Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, 74, and Sylvester Turner, 70, died in office over just two years. Now Green – a prominent critic of Trump who was ejected for the second year in a row from a Trump address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday– is being pressed to make the case that he deserves to be reelected for another term despite his age.  Activist David Hogg, who has pushed for generational change in the party, said he wished Green and Menefee could both serve, blaming redistricting by the Texas GOP. At the same time, he is backing the younger candidate. “We cannot risk determining whether or not we have the majority in the House. We cannot leave that up to Greg Abbott and God forbid, a situation where Al Green unfortunately passes away in his seat,” said Hogg, whose group Leaders We Deserve is backing both Menefee and Allam.  “There is no way of not acting like age is not a factor here.”  Menefee told NBC News in an interview  published this week  that he wasn’t focusing on the issue of age but said he’s the only one in his contest who has “stood up to the Trump administration.”  Green and his allies, meanwhile, have argued wisdom and experience are an asset to the congressman. Green has been especially vocal against pro-crypto group Fairshake’s involvement in the primary,  vowing in a video statement  this month “they cannot buy the new 18th Congressional District.”  Fairshake, a network of pro-crypto super PACs that are boosting certain Democrats and Republicans, has several prominent GOP donors such as tech billionaire Marc Andreessen.  Protect Progress, a Fairshake-affiliated super PAC, announced earlier this month it would be spending $1.5 million to oust Green from his seat, pointing out he’s opposed key pieces of pro-crypto legislation.  “Don’t get it twisted!” said Bishop James Dixon II, president of the NAACP’s Houston chapter, at a recent campaign event with Green.  “An aged man with a cane is not a man that’s weak, that’s a man that’s strong!” Dixon said, noting the Biblical story of Moses parting the Red Sea with his staff.  During that same event, Green pointed out that he was unafraid to take on Trump during his recent State of the Union address, in which he raised a sign saying “Black people are not apes” in response to a social media video Trump reposted that depicted former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes. Green was later ejected from the House chamber over the sign.  “It was easy to write, but it was not easy to present, because you know you’re standing before the world when you do it, and you know that you already have colleagues who are antithetical to such a demonstration taking place,” Green said.  In North Carolina, Foushee and Allam are set for a rematch. Allam told The Hill she felt compelled to run again this cycle because she said Foushee was not fighting back hard enough against the Trump administration amid the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts impacting the district and its hardline immigration crackdown.  “…To have