The Democratic Party is feeling the anguish of age.

The deaths of three House Democrats since March has dispirited the caucus and given GOP leaders a little more cushion to move their legislative priorities through Congress.

A new vacancy for ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has revived the dispute over the wisdom of a long-honored seniority system that’s helped to prevent the ascension of younger members.

And new revelations about the deteriorating health of former President Biden, including a newly announced cancer diagnosis, has rekindled the bitter debate over his initial decision to seek reelection in 2024 — a move many in the party say paved the way for President Trump’s return to office.

“This is a problem, and it's a real conversation that we have to have in our party,” said David Hogg, a 25-year-old vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). “What we need to be thinking about are the millions of people who are now paying the price for not having those conversations.”

At the heart of those talks is an examination of what went wrong in the 2024 election — when Democrats had warned of an existential threat to democracy if Trump won a second term — and how to rebuild their party in the wake of Trump’s resounding Electoral College victory.

But the questions of age, health and party image that have emerged as recurring themes in that autopsy are hardly new to Democrats.

The party has been grappling with generational........

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