Age issue playing big part for voters in potential rematch between Biden, Trump

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is walking toward a 2024 race for the White House saddled with a series of recent polling that finds that even some Democrats think it’s time for a new name on the top of the DNC ticket.

“‘It’s the economy has always been the line that mattered, but what they are really saying though is, ‘We really like Biden, we just wish he were younger,’” said Charles Zelden, NSU professor of History and Politics.

“It is a function of the fact a lot of people see President Biden as the oldest president if reelected,” said political strategist and Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi.

The second oldest president in U.S. history, Donald Trump, is the current Republican favorite, and that’s where it gets interesting.

If those two men, born in the 1940′s -- the two oldest to ever hold the office of president -- do go head-to-head again, at that point, analysts like Zelden and Amandi believe even Democrats who have soured on Biden will back him.

“(They’ll) basically decide that an old Biden is better than a Trump,” said Zelden. “If the nominee is Trump, I think it becomes a wash, Biden’s age. If, on the other hand, it becomes one of the younger candidates, I think it becomes an issue in the election.”

“With that choice, I think Democrats will overwhelmingly support the president again,” added Amandi. “Remember Mick Jagger in his late 20′s saying he didn’t want to be 50 years old singing ‘Satisfaction’ on concert stages and he is about to embark on his latest tour as an 80-something Rolling Stones frontman, so clearly age is in the eye of the beholder.”

A recent poll found that while Biden’s age is a bigger re-election problem for Biden than Trump, who is just three years younger, the public associates Trump with crime.

“I think these issues will solidify and sharpen as you get closer to the election. It is still early days,” said Zelden.

Below is a statement from Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried:

“We’ve been speaking to voters in advance of the HD 118 special election, and those Democrats have been overwhelmingly satisfied with the job that President Biden and Vice President Harris have done in Washington. Floridians know that the Biden-Harris administration has been delivering for them — creating jobs, lowering health care costs, investing in infrastructure, working to prevent gun violence and fighting MAGA extremism — that’s the choice Floridians face in the 2024 election, and the Florida Democratic Party is ready to remind them of that.”

RELATED POLLING LINKS

September: “CNN Poll: Biden faces negative job ratings and concerns about his age as he gears up for 2024″: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23940784-cnn-poll

September: “A Washington Post-ABC News poll finds President Biden struggling to gain approval from a skeptical public and broad concerns about his age as he seeks a second term.—A finding that shows Trump leading Biden by a wide margin does not match other recent polling, however, suggesting it is an outlier”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/24/biden-trump-poll-2024-election/

August: “Biden is widely seen as too old for office, an AP-NORC poll finds. Trump has problems of his own”: https://apnorc.org/projects/bidens-age-is-a-significant-concern-for-voters/?doing_wp_cron=1695667658.5213129520416259765625 https://apnews.com/article/biden-age-poll-trump-2024-620e0a5cfa0039a6448f607c17c7f23e

July: “CNN Poll: 75% of Democratic voters want someone other than Biden in 2024″: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22121480-rel10a-january-6-committee71

February: The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research: “Biden 2024? Most Democrats say no thank you: AP-NORC poll” https://apnews.com/article/ap-norc-poll-biden-2024-presidential-prospects-c843c5af6775b4c8a0cff8e2b1db03f6


About the Author
Christina Vazquez headshot

Christina returned to Local 10 in 2019 as a reporter after covering Hurricane Dorian for the station. She is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist and previously earned an Emmy Award while at WPLG for her investigative consumer protection segment "Call Christina."

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