The Trump campaign has repeatedly focused on Joe Biden’s age, claiming that Biden, at 81 and only three years older than Trump, was not fit for the presidency.
However, after Biden’s decision not to seek re-election on Sunday, 78-year-old Republican nominee Donald Trump, finds himself as the oldest candidate in the race.
As a presidential candidate, Kamala Harris’ age, 59, puts her far closer to the median age for U.S. Presidents at their first inauguration – 55.
If elected, Harris would be 60 years old on inauguration day, nearly two decades younger than her opponent, Trump.
It is said that younger leaders point to innovation, adaptability, and fresh perspectives as crucial attributes needed to address modern-day issues effectively.
In a seeming move to appeal to younger voters, Trump chose Senator J.D. Vance, who is 39 years old as his running mate.
In this context, the candidacy of Vance adds another layer to the age narrative. Vance represents a generational shift, appealing to younger voters disillusioned with traditional political structures and eager for change.
According to Jennifer Victor, a Professor of political science at George Mason University, the Republicans appear to have been caught off guard by Harris’s entry into the race.
“They don’t seem to have been prepared for this particular shift. Their whole campaign theory was built about around running against Biden and his failed policies and so forth,” she stated.
“To some extent, because Harris has been a part of the Biden administration, they will be able to sort of maintain some of that messaging and just change the name,” Victor added.
“But in other ways, some of the case that they wanted to prosecute against Biden is just not going to stick to Harris, particularly when it comes to issues relating to reproductive rights and gender issues and appealing to people of colour and dealing with the other liabilities Joe Biden had with respect to his health and his age.
“Kamala Harris is 30 some odd years younger. So they really have to have a whole new theory and a whole new messaging and it hasn’t quite come out yet.
Jennifer Victor
“They’re bumbling around at the moment,” she added.
Harris Hits Campaign Trail With Massive Endorsements
Meanwhile, Harris is set to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee after announcing that she has secured enough support from Democratic delegates to become the party’s presidential nominee
“I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon,” she wrote in a statement sent by her campaign.
A survey by a news agency shows Harris now has the support of 2,668 Democratic delegates, well beyond the 1,976 needed to win the party’s nomination.
“Over the next few months, I will be traveling across the country talking to Americans about everything that is on the line. I fully intend to unite our party, unite our nation, and defeat Donald Trump in November,” Harris said.
Harris went on to describe the election as a “clear choice between two different visions”, presenting herself as an alternative to Trump who she said planned to “take our country back to a time before many of us had full freedoms and equal rights.”
The U.S Vice President offered a sense of how she plans to attack Trump in a campaign speech, referring to her past of pursuing “predators” and “fraudsters” as San Francisco District Attorney and California Attorney General.
“So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said of her rival, a convicted felon who was found liable for sexual assault in civil court.
The Harris campaign raked in a record $81m in its first 24 hours, while some 28,000 new volunteers registered to help with her election bid, underscoring voter enthusiasm for the Vice President.
Victor, the professor of political science at George Mason University, said that Harris’s entry into the race has “invigorated” the Democratic party’s campaign.
“We see that evidenced by the incredible financial haul that she’s pulled in. It looks like within the last 24 to 36 hours, the Harris campaign, as it is now, has raised somewhere in the neighbourhood of $80m, which is just an unheard-of sum in that short of a time period,” Victor said.
“Between the campaign finance and then all of the Democrats that have endorsed her, starting with the rank and file Democrats all the way up to senior party leaders, and those who might have competed against her for that nomination, have all just fallen into line in a way that makes this a Democratic Party that is united and excited and ready to take this to the general election already.”
Jennifer Victor
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