# Age differences between congress men and their spouses **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 9, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-between-congress-men-and-their-spouses/627738 "2012-07-09T22:38:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-between-congress-men-and-their-spouses/627738/1 "2012-07-09T22:38:59Z")
With Barney Frank’s marriage I’ve seen some outrage about the age gap between him and his partner. Claims like ‘If a straight congressman married someone 30 years younger people would be outraged’ Barney Frank and his partner enjoying any bit of happiness is sure to outrage someone somewhere, so I hardly think outrage is a reasonable measurement to be applied here. My question is what is the largest age difference between and any sitting congressman and their spouse? What was/is the record? What is the average? My googling didn’t yield any specific chart so I’ll take any specific congress-critter that comes to mind. You can throw U.S. Senators into the mix if you wish My Congressman is John Olver his wife is less then a year younger then him so he isn’t setting any records. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-between-congress-men-and-their-spouses/627738/2 "2012-07-09T22:46:22Z")
I don’t think this is something that should really concern anyone, but that’s me. I’m not sure where you could even find this kind of information unless some political organization is specifically tracking it. Hopefully someone will prove me wrong. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-between-congress-men-and-their-spouses/627738/3 "2012-07-09T22:56:37Z")
Not a Congressman, but John McCain is 75 and his wife is 58, so 17 years difference. ETA:[John Dingell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dingell) is 86, his wife is 58, a 28 year difference. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-between-congress-men-and-their-spouses/627738/4 "2012-07-09T23:37:11Z")
The hero of dirty old men everywhere: Stom Thurmond! From Wikipedia: “He married his second wife, Nancy Janice Moore (born 1946), [Miss South Carolina](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_South_Carolina) of 1965, on December 22, 1968. He was 66 years old and she was 22. She had been working in his Senate office off and on since 1967.” ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-between-congress-men-and-their-spouses/627738/5 "2012-07-10T00:06:20Z")
Dennis Kucinich is 31 years older than his (famously super-hot) wife. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-between-congress-men-and-their-spouses/627738/6 "2012-07-10T01:04:17Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > The hero of dirty old men everywhere: Stom Thurmond! Not so fast! William O. Douglas, the longest serving justice of the Supreme Court, married wife #3 when he was 65 and she was 23. Then he topped that when he married 22-year old wife #4 when he was 68. ---
**Author:** ![IceQube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@IceQube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IceQube)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-between-congress-men-and-their-spouses/627738/7 "2012-07-10T01:17:12Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Not so fast! > > William O. Douglas, the longest serving justice of the Supreme Court, married wife #3 when he was 65 and she was 23. Then he topped that when he married 22-year old wife #4 when he was 68. _Sigh_ You’d wish that Justice Douglas would be more objective in his rulings rather than in his women. Anyway, there’s a good 20+ year difference between the late Senator Ted Kennedy and his second spouse. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-between-congress-men-and-their-spouses/627738/8 "2012-07-10T02:07:46Z")
Heh. The NYT ran a review a few years ago of a then-new bio of Justice Douglas. The reviewer had applied to be a law clerk to Justice Douglas and realized, from the book, that Douglas was boffing his much-younger secretary (and future wife) in his chambers on the very day he was there for his job interview! Ted Kennedy married his second wife Vicki in 1992, when he was 60 and she was 38, so 22 years apart. FWIW.