One of the great myths of the 2016 presidential primaries was that Republicans had an uncommonly dazzling breadth and depth of young contenders.

If that’s so, why is their presumptive nominee a 70-year-old, Donald Trump?

A related canard was that the showdown between Hillary Clinton, 68, and Bernie Sanders, 74, underscored how little youthful energy the Democratic Party possessed.

If that’s so, why was the following list so easy to pull together?

I combed the party’s ranks, questioned some of its leaders and quickly assembled the names of dozens of promising, buzzed-about Democratic politicians no older than 45, a cutoff I chose because that’s the age of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, the two young Republican comers who made credible runs at the White House this year.

I’m showcasing these 14 because they in particular are generating a noteworthy degree of excitement, have intriguing backgrounds or are well positioned for more prominent roles. And because they caught my eye.

I bet that you’ll see at least a few of them onstage in Philadelphia when the party holds its convention there in late July. They’ll undoubtedly be joined by youngsters not on this list, which is necessarily subjective and incomplete.