Youngest U.S. representatives ever elected

The youngest people ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, ranked by their age on Election Day.

Robert Williams is the youngest person ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, 23 on Election Day in 1796 (North Carolina 3). William King (24) and John Brown (24) are next. The Constitution sets 25 as the minimum age to be seated, so several on this list were elected before they were old enough to serve and turned 25 before being sworn in.

Who is the youngest person ever elected to Congress?

Robert Williams, elected to the U.S. House at 23 in 1796 (North Carolina 3). The Constitution requires a representative to be 25 to take the seat, but nothing stops a younger candidate from winning and turning 25 before being sworn in.

How old do you have to be to be a U.S. representative?

Twenty-five, under Article I of the Constitution — the age you must have reached to be seated, not to run or to win. That gap is why the top of this list, led by Robert Williams at 23, includes members elected under the minimum.

Who is the youngest member of the House today?

That is a different question from this list, which covers everyone ever elected. The sitting members are ranked, by age today, on the youngest sitting U.S. representatives page.

Youngest U.S. representatives ever elected
#	Representative	Age at election	Elected	District
1	Robert WilliamsD	23	1796	North Carolina 3
2	William KingD	24	1810	North Carolina 5
3	John BrownD	24	1859	Kentucky 5
4	Jed JohnsonD	24	1964	Oklahoma 6
5	Edward LloydI	25	1804	Maryland 7
6	William BibbI	25	1806	Georgia At-large
7	Jesse WhartonI	25	1807	Tennessee 3
8	Richard WildeI	25	1814	Georgia At-large
9	Albert TracyI	25	1818	New York 21
10	William NuckollsI	25	1826	South Carolina 7
11	David DickinsonD	25	1833	Tennessee 8
12	Richard CarmichaelD	25	1833	Maryland 2
13	William ChurchwellD	25	1851	Tennessee 3
14	Milton LathamD	25	1852	California At-large
15	William CumbackR	25	1854	Indiana 4
16	Thomas NoellR	25	1864	Missouri 3
17	John LynchR	25	1872	Mississippi 6
18	John SmithR	25	1872	Virginia 3
19	John WhiteR	25	1874	Kentucky 9
20	Philip DugroD	25	1880	New York 7
21	John FeelyD	25	1900	Illinois 2
22	Thomas J. DowneyD	25	1974	New York 2
23	Madison CawthornR	25	2020	North Carolina 11
24	Maxwell Alejandro FrostD	25	2022	Florida 10
25	William PinkneyI	26	1790	Maryland At-large

How this ranking is measured

U.S. representatives ranked by their age on Election Day (the Tuesday after the first Monday in November) at the youngest election they won, so each person appears once. Two exclusions keep the list honest. A birth date recorded as January 1 is a year-only source date stored as a day, not a birthday, and 287 of the 10,043 House winners with a date carry one, so those are set aside: an imputed day cannot support a record measured in years. And an age below 22 is set aside as a source error rather than a record. The Constitution requires a representative to be 25 when seated, and because an early Congress could convene more than a year after the election, 22 to 24 at election is genuine history — William Rufus King was elected at 24 in 1810, Robert Williams at 23 in 1796, Jed Johnson Jr. at 24 in 1964, each turning 25 or being seated under age. Exactly one row in our data falls below that floor: William Helms, whose Biographical Directory birth year of 1783 would have made him 20 when elected in 1803 and 18 when he first took the seat two years earlier, which cannot be right.

Compiled by PolitiFinder · published June 14, 2026 · sources: Data & sources · data last verified September 9, 2026.