Why Congressional Term Limits Are the Fix America Needs
And How States Can Deliver It
Congress has a 12% approval rating. Incumbents win re-election 90–95% of the time. The average tenure in the House is now over 9 years and in the Senate over 13. Meanwhile, polls consistently show 80–83% of Americans across party lines support congressional term limits.
Yet Congress will never limit itself.
That’s why the action has shifted to the states and why 2026 could be the year the movement finally breaks through.
As of July 2026, 14 states have passed single-subject resolutions demanding a national convention under Article V of the U.S. Constitution for the exclusive purpose of proposing congressional term limits (three terms in the House, two in the Senate). South Carolina joined the group in 2025 with HCR 3008. Kansas became the 13th state in March 2026. Arizona became the 14th in April 2026.
This is not fringe. It is the largest coordinated state-level push for a constitutional amendment in decades and our governors are perfectly positioned to lead it.
Why Term Limits Are the Right Path for Better Government
The case is simple and data-driven. Career politicians become dependent on lobbyists, special interests, and the D.C. ecosystem. Fresh faces bring new ideas and real-world experience. Term limits don’t eliminate expertise, they force regular turnover so that staff, committees, and voters keep lawmakers accountable instead of letting power calcify at the top.
States already prove it works. Thirty-six states have some form of legislative term limits. Governors in most states are term-limited. The sky has not fallen. Voter satisfaction with state legislatures in term-limited states is routinely higher than in Congress.
Public support is overwhelming and bipartisan. This is one of the few issues where the American people are united.
Objections don’t hold up. Critics say we’d lose “institutional knowledge.” But the real knowledge often sits with unelected staff and lobbyists who never face voters. Critics say voters can “term limit” incumbents at the ballot box. Yet gerrymandering, name recognition, and fundraising advantages make that nearly impossible - hence the 90+% re-election rate.
Term limits restore the Founders’ preference for citizen legislators over a permanent ruling class.
The Career Politician Reality: How Long Do Members of Congress Actually Serve?
One of the strongest arguments for term limits is simple: too many members stay in office for decades.
Here’s what the data shows for the current 119th Congress (as of 2025–2026):
House of Representatives
Key House takeaway: Over 56% of House members have already served 4 or more terms (8+ years). Nearly *
30% have served 7 or more terms! (14+ years).
Average tenure in the House: 8.6 years (4.3 terms).
The Senate
Key Senate takeaway: A significant
14% have already served 19 years or more and a core group of very senior senators holds disproportionate power through committee chairs and leadership roles.
Average tenure in the Senate: 11.2 years (1.9 terms).
Why the Senate numbers look different: Senators serve six-year terms, and only one-third of the seats are up for election every two years. This staggered system creates less frequent turnover than the House.
Notable Long-Serving Members (as of mid-2026):
Senate: Chuck Grassley (over 44 years), Ed Markey (nearly 48 years combined House + Senate), Ron Wyden (44+ years), Chuck Schumer (44+ years).
House: Hal Rogers (44+ years). Several others have served 30–40+ years.
This pattern of long service is relatively new. Understanding why it matters requires looking at the historical record - specifically how rising tenure, salaries, taxes, and lobbyist influence have combined over time to favor permanent political careers over temporary public service.
The Rise of the Career Politician: How Congressional Tenure Has Changed Over Time
For most of American history, serving in Congress was viewed as temporary public service and not a lifelong career. Members would serve a few years and then return to their farms, businesses, or professions back home. That began to change dramatically in the 20th century.
Here’s how average length of service has evolved:
When salaries really started leaping: Congressional pay remained relatively modest for decades. The first major sustained increases began in the late 1960s, but the biggest single leap occurred in 1990–1991, when pay jumped dramatically to $125,100 following the Ethics Reform Act of 1989.
A note on taxes during this era:
Get R.D. Price’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
During the same period when congressional careers were lengthening most dramatically (1941–1990), the top marginal federal income tax rate was extremely high for most of those years , reaching 94% during World War II and remaining between 70% and 91% from the late 1940s through 1981. Even after the first Reagan tax cuts, the top rate stayed at 50% until the late 1980s. Despite these high statutory rates, members still chose to make Congress a long-term career. This suggests that power, status, and the broader D.C. ecosystem, not just take-home pay, were powerful incentives for extended tenure.
When did the career politician become the norm?
The shift happened primarily between 1900 and 1940, accelerating sharply after World War II. As Congress became a full-time job, the seniority system rewarded long service with committee chairs and power, and fundraising/name recognition advantages grew, members began staying much longer. By the late 20th century, serving 10, 20, or even 40+ years became common rather than exceptional.
The Founders themselves anticipated and warned against exactly this kind of entrenched political class. They designed a system that assumed regular turnover, not lifetime careers in Washington.
What the Founding Fathers Actually Believed
The idea of “rotation in office” was baked into early American thought.
The Articles of Confederation (1781) explicitly limited delegates to three years in any six-year period. At the Constitutional Convention, the Virginia Plan originally proposed term limits for the national legislature. Many Founders feared a permanent political class would emerge. This is exactly what we see today.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1816 that legislators should serve short terms and return to private life so they could “share in the burdens of government” as ordinary citizens. George Washington voluntarily stepped down after two terms as president, setting a precedent that lasted until FDR.
In the early republic, the average House member served just two terms. Today the average is more than four and the longest-serving members have been in office 40, 50, even 60+ years.
The Founders designed a republic, not a careerist oligarchy. Term limits are a modern correction that honors their original intent.
The States Are Already Leading the Momentum in 2026
While Congress stalls (H.J.Res.5 remains stuck with no real movement), states are moving fast.
The Active 14 (single-subject Article V applications passed):
These resolutions are narrowly drafted: they ask only for a convention to propose term limits. Nothing else. Once 34 states apply, Congress must call the convention. Any amendment still requires ratification by 38 states — a massive safeguard.
Another 20+ states have passed term limits language as part of broader Article V applications.
Twenty-three states still have pre-1995 unenforceable congressional term limits laws on the books. These statutes in states like South Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, and Ohio remain codified but dormant.
Article V: The Constitutional Path Forward
Article V gives states equal power with Congress to propose amendments. It was designed precisely for moments when the federal government refuses to reform itself.
The single-subject strategy — U.S. Term Limits pioneered is brilliant:
- It avoids “runaway convention” fears by limiting the agenda to term limits only.
- Applications are aggregated only with other identical term-limits resolutions.
- Ratification by 38 states is still required.
Governors don’t vote on the resolutions themselves, but they have enormous influence through public endorsements, letters to legislative leaders, hosting interstate summits, and making term limits a campaign plank.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has already traveled to other states to lobby on this issue.
The Moment Is Now — And Why It Matters
When members of Congress stay in office for decades, they often become disconnected from the very people they were elected to represent.
The average American worker, small business owner, and family today faces challenges that look very different from the world many long-serving members knew when they first arrived in Washington. Economic realities, technology, global competition, energy needs, and cultural shifts have all changed dramatically, yet some members have been in office through multiple generations of those changes.
This creates a real problem: representatives who are no longer fully in touch with current citizens and current business conditions.
Thomas Jefferson captured this danger clearly. In his famous 1789 letter to James Madison, he wrote:
“The earth belongs always to the living generation. They may manage it then, and what proceeds from it, as they please, during their usufruct.”
Jefferson’s point was profound: each generation should have the right to govern itself. When the same people remain in power for 20, 30, or 40+ years, they effectively become a permanent class making decisions for a country that has moved on without them.
Long tenure also increases “coercion and capture” by special interests. The longer a member stays in Washington, the more dependent they often become on lobbyists, large donors, and party leadership for campaign money, committee assignments, and political survival. This creates powerful incentives to prioritize those interests over the current needs of everyday citizens and businesses back home.
When power becomes concentrated in the hands of the same people for decades, the risk is no longer just inefficiency or disconnection. It becomes a structural threat to representative government itself .
One that the Founders clearly tried to prevent.
Term limits would break this cycle. They would ensure regular turnover so that Congress stays connected to the living generation and the people actually living under the laws being passed today.
Congress will not fix itself. The only path forward is the one the Founders left us: the States.
We are 14 states deep with more actively engaged in 2026. Public support is sky-high. The mechanisms are proven and narrow. All that’s missing is visible leadership from governors and gubernatorial candidates who are willing to make this a priority.
This is not a partisan fight. It is a republic-restoring fight.
If you believe Congress needs fresh blood, contact your state legislators. Tell your governor (or candidates) to endorse the Article V push. Share this with friends. The 34-state threshold is closer than it has ever been.
The Founders trusted the states to check federal power. In 2026, the states are ready to answer.
