Patrick Halpin, 73, aims to unseat GOP Rep. Andrew Garbarino and make history along the way

Pat Halpin flashed onto the Long Island political scene in the 1980s, with a "new generation" campaign theme that he used to become the youngest person Suffolk County has ever elected as county executive.

Now, nearly four decades later, Halpin is trying to recapture his 1980s political energy as he runs to unseat Republican Rep. Andrew Garbarino.

If Halpin wins, he will be celebrating his 74th birthday just two weeks after he takes the oath in the new Congress in January. Even making the attempt, as a first-time congressional candidate, makes him an anomaly in an era when generational politics is a fixation within the Democratic Party and when Congress, on the whole, is getting steadily younger.

"Halpin is a clear outlier, both historically and presently, at a moment when Democrats are especially attuned to age issues," said Jacob Rubashkin, deputy editor of Inside Elections, a non-partisan political handicapper. "It’s rare to see first-time candidates in their 70s."

Halpin’s septuagenarian plunge into a campaign for New York’s 2nd Congressional District comes as Congress, and particularly the Democratic Party, have been experiencing intense and very public clashes between aging establishment figures and younger voters seeking fresh leadership and new policy directions.

Overall, the median age of House members remains among the highest ever but has been falling in recent years. The median age was 57.5 years at the start of the current two-year session, down from 57.9 at the start of the 2023-2025 Congress and 58.9 in the 2021-2023 Congress, the non-partisan Pew Research Center says.

Halpin acknowledged that his age sometimes comes up as he campaigns. But he projected no inhibition in talking about it in a recent interview.

"I am who I am, period," Halpin said. "Frankly, I’m at the gym five days a week. I feel great."

Age has already proved a liability for five Democrats age 69 or older who’ve lost their party’s primaries this year in New York City, Texas, Connecticut, Colorado and Michigan, some facing democratic socialist challenges and other insurgent anti-establishment campaigns. Some older baby boomer incumbents, who have been surpassed by Generation X as the largest generation of House members, did fend off challenges.

Garbarino, who is 41, did not directly attack Halpin’s age.

"Pat Halpin was last elected to public office in 1987, and Suffolk voters rejected his record after one term. His age isn’t the issue — his record is," Garbarino says. "While he’s trying to return to elected office nearly 40 years later, I’m focused on doing the job Long Islanders elected me to do, delivering results in Congress, and fighting for communities I represent."

First-time candidates

Only one challenger heading into this fall's elections from either party is older than Halpin among the more than 60 contests considered by non-partisan analysts as competitive — former Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage, 77. Just two others, a Democrat in Florida and a Republican in Nevada, are in their early 70s, both younger than Halpin.

Exactly how many House members, historically, first arrived in their seats in their 70s is not clear because there are no complete or official U.S. House historical records on that from the beginnings of Congress.

The oldest known member ever elected as a freshman to the 435-seat House was Republican William Lewis of Kentucky, who won a special election in 1948 at the age of 79. He did not seek reelection.

As recently as two years ago, a pair of House candidates were elected for the first time while in their 70s — but one of them has since died. Democrat George Latimer of New York, himself a former Westchester County executive, took the oath as a House member at 71. And former Democratic Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner did so at age 70, only to pass away in March of last year, two months after taking office.

A CNN survey released in July reported that nearly 6 out of 10 U.S. adults considered it a major problem that nearly a quarter of members of Congress were age 70 or older.

Erin Covey, a House-race expert at The Cook Political Report, another non-partisan political handicapper, points out the oldest three candidates out of the dozens nationwide carrying public endorsements from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — the official, main political arm of House Democrats — are in their early to mid-60s.

Halpin is not on those so-called red-to-blue or "districts-in-play" lists in his bid to unseat Garbarino, who is chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Asked by Newsday the past week to comment specifically on Halpin’s campaign, a DCCC spokeswoman would not do so.

When pressed about why even his own national party isn’t showing more confidence in his campaign, Halpin said he believes they are flat-out overlooking some recent data and polling, including a Newsday/Siena Research Institute voter survey released in late June that showed political mood shifts in the district could be tilting his party’s way.

Most notably, among the sampling of Suffolk County registered voters surveyed, the findings showed a 17-percentage point swing to favoring a generic Democrat for Congress compared to a similar Siena-Newsday survey taken two years ago that favored a Republican.

Halpin said his campaign is about stopping the harm he says is being done by President Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans in Congress, including Garbarino, who won’t "do their jobs" and stand up to Trump on issues ranging from immigration enforcement abuses to major funding and staff cuts to federal health and food programs.

" I’m running right now — right now — because we have to stop the damage, we have to protect our country, our Republic," Halpin said.

At the same time, the latest candidate fundraising filings with the Federal Election Commission in July showed Halpin’s campaign had taken in only $461,848, compared to the $3.53 million by Garbarino (R-Bayport).

Upset win in '87

Halpin ran unopposed in his primary. But Donald Nieman, a professor of history and provost emeritus at Binghamton University, sees that as more a reflection of a Republican incumbent widely viewed as a lock for reelection, than bucking any trend.

Halpin reminds that he’s been the underdog before. It was in November 1987 that Halpin, then a 34-year-state assemblyman, won his stunning upset victory over Republican Michael LoGrande and become the youngest-ever Suffolk County executive.

But Halpin was defeated in his bid for reelection in November 1991 by Republican challenger Robert J. Gaffney, in a race where he was hit hard on tax increases. In the years since, his work has included hosting TV current events shows, government relations and lobbying and other roles, including as chairman on the Suffolk County Water Authority.

Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University and a former longtime political journalist, says that Halpin’s being 73 "is hard to square with the memory of a gifted young politician who toppled a powerful local Republican machine to become county executive."

Levy says, "it’s hard to say if he still has what it takes — including raising mountains of money — to turn a long-shot campaign into a competitive one."

Latimer, who is this Congress' oldest living freshman member, reminds that he won his own first House race in 2024 after defeating the party’s younger, established incumbent in a primary.

"Youth must be served," Latimer conceded. But he says Halpin, as another new House member entering in his 70s, would not be preoccupied with scaling the leadership ladder or some other career move and would be focused on getting things accomplished, now. "How is that not a good thing for voters?" he asked.

Halpin himself says he might stick around just one or two terms, at most. The priority is to get to Washington, he says, and help counter Trump and his allies like Garbarino, and fight for constituents. Seeking to protect programs like Medicare and Social Security are among urgencies, he says.

"I am doing this with purpose," Halpin said. "And maybe I will run for a second term, we’ll see"