Lyndon Johnson became Senate majority leader at age 44, in a Senate whose average age was about 60, partly because the role was so undesirable that his two predecessors had lost their seats and few others wanted it.

“Being in this predicament was so politically toxic that Johnson's two predecessors as majority leaders had both lost their own Senate seats. A big part of the reason that Johnson became his party's leader at just 44 years old, in a Senate whose average age was around 60, was that hardly anybody else wanted this thankless and useless job.”