The Poynter Institute Menu Donate State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin Issues * All Issues * Online hoaxes * Coronavirus * Health Care * Immigration * Extremism * Taxes * Marijuana * Environment * Crime * Guns * Foreign Policy * LGBTQ+ People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis Media * PunditFact * Tucker Carlson * Sean Hannity * Rachel Maddow * Bloggers * PolitiFact Videos Campaigns * 2024 Elections Truth-o-Meter * True * Mostly True * Half True * Mostly False * False * Pants on Fire Promises * Biden Promise Tracker * Trump-O-Meter * Obameter * Latest Promises About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Suggest a Fact-check * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters Donate #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up English Español ### Get PolitiFact in your inbox. * Weekly Email Newsletter * Daily Email Newsletter Your Email Address Sign Up ![](\\" ![](\\" Sunny Hostin stated on November 14, 2022 in a statement on \"The View\": “Republicans want to raise the voting to age 28.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") * Elections * Sunny Hostin ![\\"Supporters](\\" Supporters of Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, cheer him on as he speaks at Temple University in Philadelphia, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022. (AP) ![\\"Amy](\\" By Amy Sherman November 17, 2022 # \'View\' host Sunny Hostin has scant evidence for claiming GOP wants to raise voting age to 28 #### If Your Time is short * The 26th Amendment to the Constitution lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. Advocacy to lower the voting age to 18 was decades in the making, starting in World War II. * One pundit, Peter Schiff, tweeted on Election Day that the voting age should be raised to 28. The next day, another pundit tweeted that the age should be raised to 21. * Raising the voting age would require amending the Constitution, a high bar. We found no serious proposal to raise the voting age. See the sources for this fact-check \"The View\" co-host Sunny Hostin said younger voters delivered for the Democrats in the midterms, and now Republicans want to revoke their right to vote. \"When you look at the youth voter turnout in the 2022 midterms, they delivered key wins for the Democrats,\" Hostin said Nov. 14. \"Younger voters aged 18 to 29, which by the way, now the Republicans want to raise the voting to age 28.\" A reader asked us to fact-check Hostin’s claim that Republicans want to raise the voting age — a claim that drew backlash on Twitter and in conservative media. Hostin’s comment is misleading; it is merely a reference to one pundit who tweeted a call to raise the voting age to 28. Another commentator called to raise it to 21. But we found no broader effort by Republicans to raise the voting age. Two pundits proposed raising the voting age Two pundits who called for raising the voting age made recent headlines in the The Daily Beast and The Guardian: Peter Schiff, a conservative radio show personality, and Brigitte Gabriel, an anti-Muslim activist. Both pundits have hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter, and an ABC News spokesperson pointed to their comments to support Hostin’s claim. Schiff tweeted Nov. 8: \"When the voting age was 21 by that age most voters were married, had kids, and had been out of school and in the workforce for 8 years. Today most 18 year olds never had a job and still live with their parents. Let\'s raise the voting age to 28. If I was still 18 I\'d support this.\" Schiff’s tweet included a Twitter poll and inspired an essay by novelist Dean Brooks. The day after the Nov. 8 election, Gabriel tweeted, \"Raise the voting age to 21.\" Examples of notable Republicans who agree with them are scarce. Addison Smith of One America News Network said it made him \"sick\" to agree with Hostin, but \"she is right! Some people on the right do want to raise the voting age, myself included.\" Smith said he didn’t have a set age in mind but said \"unfortunately I don’t think it will\" change. Nan Hayworth, a former one-term New York U.S. representative, who served from 2011 to 2013, tweeted in support of raising the voting age to 28 or 21. Voting age was set by a constitutional amendment in 1971 It would be very hard to raise the voting age. \"That would take a constitutional amendment, since it would require repeal of the 26th Amendment,\" said Kermit Roosevelt, a constitutional law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. \"I don’t think there’s any chance it could be done.\" An amendment may be proposed by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress, or, if two-thirds of the states request one, by a convention. The amendment must then be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures, or three- fourths of conventions called in each state. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" black/4590875651af69b2c789ceab409664dd.jpg\\") ![](\\" black/72988380e8c8bd188dc360d11552e4a0.jpg\\") X posts stated on August 27, 2024 in a social media post The order of candidate names on North Carolina’s ballot shows a “clear attempt at voter manipulation.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Paul Specht • August 28, 2024 It took decades to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. The movement came after World War II, when Congress lowered the minimum age to be drafted from 21 to 18. The slogan \"old enough to fight, old enough to vote\" was born, according to Rock the Vote. Calls to lower the voting age gained steam during the Vietnam War. In 1970, Congress voted to amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to lower the voting age to 18 in federal, state, and local elections nationwide. After President Richard Nixon signed the amendment into law, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Texas sued the federal government in opposition. The Supreme Court ruled that Congress had the power to set the age only for federal elections. That defeat in court led the Senate and the House to vote in favor of an amendment, and two months later, 38 states had voted in favor of lowering the voting age. We found no evidence that anyone beyond a couple of conservative pundits have called for raising the voting age. We found some efforts by Democrats to lower the voting age to 16, but those proposals haven’t picked up many supporters, either. John Holbein, an associate professor of public policy, politics and education at the University of Virginia, said some cities in Maryland and California have lowered the voting age to 16 in local and/or school board elections. Some congressional lawmakers have proposed lowering the voting age, including Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y. Meng, who floated a constitutional amendment, said 16-year-olds can work, pay federal income taxes, drive cars and be tried in criminal court as adults. \"If 16-year-olds are impacted by our laws, it is only fair that they be allowed to choose their representatives,\" Meng said in 2021. We wondered about Hostin’s broader comment that youth delivered for Democrats. The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University wrote in a Nov. 9 report that 27% of young people (ages 18-29) turned out to vote in the 2022 midterm election. These young voters supported Democratic House candidates by a wide margin: 62% to 35%. (The numbers could change once states complete counting ballots.) This 2022 youth turnout is likely the second-highest youth turnout rate for a midterm election in the past 30 years, behind the 31% turnout in 2018, the center found. Votes cast by young people made up 12% of all votes in this election, nearly matching the 13% youth share of the vote from the 2014 and 2018 midterms, according to National Election Pool surveys. Our ruling Hostin said, \"Republicans want to raise the voting to age 28.\" Hostin did not elaborate on which Republicans want to raise the voting age. ABC pointed to news coverage of a tweet by a conservative radio show personality, who supports raising the voting age to 28. Although Hostin didn’t single out lawmakers as sharing this view, her broad comments left the false impression of a serious proposal being in the works. We found no such effort beyond the tweet. We rate this statement False. PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact-check. **RELATED** : All of our fact-checks about elections #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources The View, Nov. 14, 2022 Nicholas Fondacaro, Tweet, Nov. 14, 2022 Peter Schiff, Tweet, Nov. 8, 2022 Brigitte Gabriel, Tweet, Nov. 9, 2022 Dean Brooks, Should the Voting Age Be Raised to 28? Nov. 9, 2022 The Guardian, Gen Z helped to stop the ‘red wave’ in the midterms. The Republicans’ response? Try to raise the voting age, Nov. 16, 2022 U.S. Constitution, 26th Amendment Nixon Library, The 26th Amendment History.com, 26th amendment, April 23, 2021 The Daily Beast, Some Republicans Want to Raise Voting Age After Gen Z Midterm Turnout, Nov. 12, 2022 Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, Millions of Youth Cast Ballots, Decide Key 2022 Races, Nov. 9, 2022 Mediaite, ‘Damaging to Our Democracy’: Sunny Hostin Claims Without Evidence That Republicans Want to Raise Voting Age to 28, Nov. 15, 2022 Rock the Vote, Explainer on 26th amendment, Accessed Nov. 16, 2022 OAN, Addison Smith comments about The View, Nov. 16, 2022 U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, D-NY, Remarks on a constitutional amendment to lower voting age to 16, Feb. 3, 2021 U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, D-NY, Press release, Feb. 4, 2021 Nan Hayworth, former U.S. Representative, Tweet, Nov. 14, 2022 PolitiFact, A closer look at turnout, young voters and a key Bernie Sanders strategy, March 4, 2020 PolitiFact, Beto O’Rourke on target about scale of Democratic surge in Texas in 2018, June 14, 2019 Email interview, Lauri Hogan, ABC spokesperson, Nov. 16, 2022 Email interview, Kermit Roosevelt, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor, Nov. 16, 2022 Email interview, Rick Hasen, UCLA law professor, Nov. 16, 2022 Email interview, John Holbein, an associate professor of public policy, politics and education at University of Virginia, Nov. 16, 2022 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Amy Sherman ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on September 18, 2024 in a speech in New York: When Haitians go to school in Springfield, Ohio, they “take the place of our children in school” and “each one will have a private interpreter.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • September 23, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" JD Vance stated on August 25, 2024 in an interview on NBC\'s \"Meet the Press\": A zero-tolerance policy during the Trump administration \"led to less family separation than under Kamala Harris\' border policies.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 26, 2024 in an interview with a podcaster: Vice President Kamala Harris “is a communist. … She is really a Marxist.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Rick Scott stated on August 28, 2024 in a post on X: “This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • August 29, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 23, 2024 in a speech in Las Vegas: “Kamala cast the tiebreaking vote to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to go after your tip income.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • August 28, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tim Walz stated on August 14, 2024 in a speech in California: Former President Donald Trump “cut overtime benefits for millions of workers.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 20, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Pete Buttigieg stated on August 11, 2024 in an interview on CNN State of the Union: Gov. 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Republicans want to raise the voting to age 28