Philip Blumel: Term limits déjà vu in Louisiana. Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the term limits movement. This is episode number 286, published on June 15th, 2026.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from partisan politics.
Philip Blumel: Good news. Louisiana voters are going to get to vote on eight-year term limits for their governor in November this year after both houses of their legislature voted to put the question on the ballot. Congratulations to the Pelican State. But wait a minute. Doesn’t the Louisiana governor already have eight-year term limits? Yes, but the current law allows a governor to sit out a term and then run again for eight years. So that’s consecutive term limits. Currently, for example, Governors John Bel Edwards and Bobby Jindal could run again. And indeed, Edwards has suggested he just might. Well, okay then. Louisiana is going to decide whether to go from consecutive to lifetime term limits. Well, I love it because this just underscores the momentum behind the term limits movement right now in this country. Voters don’t want the return of a former governor with a vestigial machine still behind them. Okay, I can see that. Voters embrace presidential term limits in the US Constitution and would like to make the Louisiana gubernatorial term limits consistent with it. All right, sounds good to me. Basically, I think voters just want more and stronger term limits, and they want the opportunity to vote on them whenever and wherever they can. Louisiana Representative Michael Bayham, who championed the bill in the House, calls it closing the musical chairs loophole. Yeah, okay, it’ll serve that function in Louisiana. I call it keeping the pressure on.
Speaker 3: This is a public service announcement.
Philip Blumel: We all know term limits are not a partisan issue. As evidence, we offer Newsmax host Rob Finnerty, who ran a segment with Republicans pointing to their own former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as a poster child for term limits.
Rob Finnerty: Terms for senators. That way you don’t end up with situations like this. Republican Mitch McConnell yesterday during a hearing on Capitol Hill.
Mitch McConnell: I’m gonna ask Senator Murkowski to wrap up and thank you all for being here.
Staffer: Baldwin, Shaheen, and Kennedy.
Mitch McConnell: Hmm?
Staffer: Baldwin, Shaheen, and Kennedy still have questions. Wrap up after.
Mitch McConnell: Let me see what I’m being told here. Yeah, obviously there’s not a whole lot of time for a second round.
Rob Finnerty: All right, so Mitch McConnell, 84 years old, he’s been in the Senate for 41 years, but he needed a staffer to remind him four times during that hearing that three other senators still needed to speak. Everyone gets to speak. And look, I get it, okay? I get it. But Mitch McConnell should be home watching Court TV, spending time with his family. I don’t care that he’s a Republican. That’s pathetic and that shouldn’t be happening. Ben Ferguson is the host of the Ben Ferguson Show. Emily Sturge is a Campus Reform reporter. It’s great to have you both.
Ben Ferguson: Good to be here.
Rob Finnerty: Ben, according to a poll, 83% of Americans support term limits. Is it time to have a serious conversation about this issue?
Ben Ferguson: Yeah, clearly the American people say it’s beyond time that we should have a serious conversation about this. And look, Mitch McConnell is a guy, whether I like his politics or not, he had a great career. Why is he still there? And it tells you the answer is why we need term limits. Because he doesn’t want to give up the power that he has accumulated. The longer you’re in DC, the more power you get, the more people bow down to you, the more special interests pay you, the more of the politicians stop listening to the constituents and listen more to those that are there as lobbyists. Right? The game changes the longer you’re there. And so why is Mitch McConnell willing to embarrass himself in this way at the end of his career where it is obvious, just like we saw Joe Biden, you shouldn’t be in office? Because he doesn’t want to give up that significance, the power that he accumulated over years and decades. I was three years old when he got into office. Three years old.
Rob Finnerty: Right.
Ben Ferguson: The fact that he’s still there is in complete insanity. So we should have term limits. It’s long overdue. And Washington is broken and it’s fixed for these guys.
Rob Finnerty: Look, and I said this about Joe Biden. I don’t care that Mitch is a Republican. I don’t think cognitively, I don’t think he’s all there. In fact, he is not all there based on that video and what I just saw.
Ben Ferguson: Exactly. No, he’s not. And Mitch McConnell is the Joe Biden of the Republican Party. And I don’t mean that in a mean way. It’s just the truth. They’re both senile old men that don’t need to be in position power.
Rob Finnerty: I don’t even care if it sounds mean. Okay? We’re not gonna play this little game and dance around it. Emily, Donald Trump, I thought this was actually, it surprised me. Donald Trump tried to bail him out on Truth Social. Before flying to China, he posted this saying that it was the staffer’s fault who made Mitch McConnell look foolish and tried to get out of that. Do you think it was the staffer’s fault? I don’t.
Emily Sturge: No, I think the problem here is competency. And look, our founding fathers did not intend for our government to look like a retirement home. That’s what Florida is for. But all jokes aside, we absolutely need term limits. And one of the many reasons why is because it would allow for fresh blood and fresh ideas to break into the system. These disruptor-style candidates do really, really well with the American people. And it feels like for so many years, it’s the same exact people on the ballot. But look at these disruptor candidates, like President Donald Trump, for instance. He did so well with the American people because he represented somebody who would come in and totally shake up the status quo.
Rob Finnerty: Right.
Emily Sturge: As a reporter for the Leadership Institute’s Campus Reform, I reported that it was because he was shaking up that status quo he did so well with young people. In New York City, Mayor Mamdani, same exact case. Fresh face, new ideas. In the Los Angeles mayoral race, Spencer Pratt an independent, same exact thing, fresh ideas. That’s a Republican, a Democrat, and an independent all representing the same exact phenomenon. And limits on Congress, term limits would absolutely bring fresh new candidates and fresh faces to the ballot, which the American people would really enjoy.
Rob Finnerty: That’s a good… I hadn’t thought about that. When the founders drew up the Constitution, the entire purpose of public service was to run for office, serve your country for a few years…
Ben Ferguson: And go home.
Rob Finnerty: And then return to private life, go back to the farm. They never envisioned senators in their 90s or congressmen serving 20 terms, but that’s common now. What about maybe having age limits? Ben, people don’t like to talk about this, but what about 65 or 70 or 75?
Ben Ferguson: Yeah, look, I don’t think that age limits are an issue. I’ve met some brilliant people in their upper 70s and early 80s that I think are very competent. I look at Ronald Reagan as an example when he was running for president. I look at Donald Trump now, right? I…
Rob Finnerty: No, but Ben, you have to admit we can’t tiptoe around that issue either. At some point, you gotta hang ’em up. It doesn’t mean that you gotta go lay out the pasture, but at some point you gotta hang ’em up, right?
Ben Ferguson: No. But that’s where term limits would fix… But term limits would fix the issue. We have a term limit with the presidency of eight years. You shouldn’t be in the Senate for 40 years. You shouldn’t be able to do this your entire life.
Rob Finnerty: Right. Unless you have somebody, a first time…
Ben Ferguson: And so I go back to the voters here. But let me say one thing about that staff member. That staff member should not be fired. He should be given Staff Member of the Year. Maybe we should rename it as Babysitter of the Year, because that was babysitting. That was what you see at an old folks’ home. Okay, it’s time to go to bed, Grandpa. It’s time to be done with your Jell-O, Grandpa.
Rob Finnerty: Let’s get the tapioca pudding out. Yeah.
Ben Ferguson: That is a babysitter. That is not a staffer.
Rob Finnerty: Somebody put on Wapner. No, I’m totally true, and I’m not making fun, alright? It’s just if this is what’s happening on camera, imagine what it’s like behind closed doors in his office. Just quickly, I want to play you Dianne Feinstein. So this is a woman who was in the Senate for 30 years. She was 90 years old on the Senate floor, and she one day forgot how to vote. Take a look.
Ben Ferguson: Yeah.
Dianne Feinstein: It funds priorities submitted…
Speaker 10: Yeah. Just say aye.
Dianne Feinstein: Okay. Just… Aye.
Rob Finnerty: Emily, I’ve got 20 seconds. She died a couple of weeks later. The only thing that worries me about mandatory retirement age is that what if somebody runs, with term limits, if you don’t do mandatory retirement age, what if somebody runs, first-time candidate, at 80 years old and gets elected? You run into the same problem, maybe.
Emily Sturge: Yeah, absolutely run into the same problem. I think one of the bigger problems here is how out of touch members of Congress are with the American people. And we saw during those government shutdowns, we saw members of Congress skipping the lines while everyday Americans like me were waiting in hours-long lines in TSA. 1.4 million Americans didn’t receive their paychecks during the 2025 government shutdown, but of course, members of Congress received theirs. I think that’s a reason why Americans overwhelmingly support term limits here is because they just feel like their members of Congress are completely out of touch.
Rob Finnerty: All right. Everyone’s got an opinion about this, by the way. Everyone’s got an opinion. Ben Ferguson, Emily Sturge, good to see you tonight. Thank you.
Ben Ferguson: Good to see you.
Emily Sturge: Thanks so much.
Rob Finnerty: All right.
Philip Blumel: Next. Every once in a while, I see a politician opposing term limits saying they aren’t necessary because the average tenure in the Senate, for example, is only 11.2 years. So why do we need a 12-year term limit on the Senate if they don’t serve 12 years anyway? Well, this argument kind of reminds me of the quip by Mark Twain that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Right.
Philip Blumel: Well, that stat isn’t false necessarily, but boy, is it deceptive. First of all, it includes all the senators who were just elected or are early in their careers. The senators who are newbies now might serve for 30 or 40 years before they’re done. That such senators have only served two years so far does not suggest that senators only serve two years. The snapshot doesn’t mean a thing. It’s more useful to ask, how long does the average senator who eventually leaves the Senate serve in total? And the answer to that question is more like 18 to 20 years. Now, that number is much more useful, but it still doesn’t tell the whole story, at least not for term limit supporters. The issue with long tenure isn’t just that tenure is bad in itself. It is that incumbents are re-elected to their own seat well more than 90% of the time, and they don’t face competitive elections. They win pretty much automatically. And in a seniority-based system as we have in Congress, long-term incumbents who statistically can’t lose elections get entrenched in the most powerful positions. And only career politicians with long tenure ever come close to the levers of power. This is what locks out new ideas and what keeps us stuck in a time warp of permanent partisan battles. It’s what makes change essentially impossible. A well-meaning, successful person can’t run for Congress and expect to make a difference and then go back to their private life. Congress members must commit to a political career to have any real influence. And that means that Congress only attracts people who aspire to be, or at least are resigned to be, career politicians with their own flawed set of incentives. Hence, the tenure that really matters is the tenure of the party leadership and the chairs of the most powerful committees. These are the people that decide what gets voted on and can make or break the careers of the career politicians who aspire to eventually replace them.
Philip Blumel: Now, the five most powerful committees in the Senate are considered to be Appropriations, of course, Armed Services, Finance, Foreign Relations, and Judiciary. And what is the average tenure in the Senate of the chairs of these committees? 29 years. 29 years average. And the same problem exists in the House, of course. This power becomes entrenched in the long-serving senators who cannot lose elections and sometimes don’t even know where they are or what they’re doing. So the purpose of 12-year term limits in the US Senate is not simply to make sure that the average tenure stays below 12 years. That’s meaningless. It’s to ensure that power in the Senate is not stagnant, reserved for career politicians and beyond voter control. It’s to make sure that we have rotation in office, informed by the voters in regular competitive elections. Only term limits can fix the US Congress.
Philip Blumel: Next, a move is afoot by self-serving legislators in Nebraska to repeal the voter-approved two-term or eight-year term limits and replacing them with three-term or 12-year term limits. While the eight-year term limits were imposed by voter signature gathering for a citizens’ initiative, this one is simply being referred to the ballot by the same legislators that would personally benefit from the change. Talk about conflict of interest. Wow. Now, in frighteningly similar news, President Félix Tshisekedi of the African Republic of the Congo has announced plans to replace his two-term limits with three-term limits. Surely President Félix’s efforts are providing inspiration to his peers in Nebraska. As a result, there were violent clashes in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, last week. Protests against the proposed changes were dispersed by police with tear gas. It was reported that Martin Fayulu, the runner-up in the 2018 presidential election and one of Congo’s most prominent opposition figures, was injured in the street fighting. President Tshisekedi has been in office since 2019 and is due to complete his second term in 2028. He has said that he will be willing to seek a third term if approved by the voters in a referendum. In Nebraska, as in the Congo, the self-serving politicians will say, “Let the voters decide.” Then they will use all the available state machinery to run a deceptive campaign to benefit themselves at the expense of their constituents. Boy, this is an old, old story. Corrupt politicians everywhere oppose term limits.
Philip Blumel: Lastly, let’s finish this episode with some wisdom from the book of Ecclesiastes. This is Ecclesiastes 4, verses 13 and 14, traditionally attributed to King Solomon. Quote, “Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.” Amen.
Stacey Selleck: Like the show? You can help by subscribing and leaving a five-star review on both Apple and Spotify. It’s free.
Philip Blumel: Thanks for joining us for another episode of No Uncertain Terms. The Term Limits Convention bills are moving through the state legislatures. This could be a breakthrough year for the term limits movement. To check on the status of the Term Limits Convention resolution in your state, go to termlimits.com/takeaction. There, you will see if it has been introduced and where it stands in the committee process on its way to the floor vote. If there’s action to take, you’ll see a Take Action button by your state. Click it. This will give you the opportunity to send a message to the most relevant legislators, urging them to support the legislation. They have to know you’re watching. That’s termlimits.com/takeaction. If your state has already passed the Term Limits Convention resolution, or the bill’s not been introduced in your state, you can still help. Please consider making a contribution to U.S. Term Limits. It is our aim to hit the reset button on the U.S. Congress, and you can help. Go to termlimits.com/donate. Termlimits.com/donate. Thanks. We’ll be back next week.
Philip Blumel: Find us on most social media @USTermLimits. Like us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and now LinkedIn.
Speaker 11: USTL.
