US POLITICS
Who are the oldest presidential candidates in US history?
Joe Biden and Donald Trump top the list as the oldest people to seek the office of president. But who else makes that list?
One of the most significant concerns about Joe Biden and Donald Trump is their age. At 81, President Joe Biden is already the oldest president in US history. Meanwhile, his Republican challenger, Donald Trump, turned 78 in June, meaning he would surpass Biden as the oldest person ever elected president if he wins.
This makes them both some of the oldest people to run for president. But who else tops that list?
We will focus our discussion on the last one hundred years of US history.
In the 1924 election, Calvin Coolidge, a Republican, beat Robert M. La Follette, a Wisconsinite who had been a Republican until his establishment of the Progressive Party a few years earlier. La Follette was 69 years old when he sought the office of US President.
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was 60 when he ran for president and won in 1952. A few decades later, in 1974, Republican President Gerald Ford, who had served as Richard Nixon’s vice president, was 61 when he lost to Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Ronald Reagan was 69 years old when he ran for president for the first time in 1980, defeating Jimmy Carter. He would become the oldest candidate to represent any major party on a ticket in the country’s history. He then held the record as the oldest US president until Joe Biden.
George H.W. Bush, who served as Reagan’s vice president, was 66 when he was elected president. Republican Senator Bob Dole was 73 during the 1996 general election but was defeated by President Bill Clinton.
In the 21st century
Senator John Kerry, who was 61 when he lost to the incumbent Republican, was the Democratic challenger to President George Bush in 2004.
John McCain was 72 when he lost to Barack Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton was 69 when she ran against Donald Trump in 2016, and Mitt Romey, who ran against Barack Obama in 2012, was 65 when the Democratic incumbent defeated him.
Biden and Trump are outliers globally as well as domestically
Not only would they be the oldest leaders to serve in the US, but they would be some of the oldest world leaders on Earth. Let’s look at our neighborhood. The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, is 52 years old, and in Mexico, the outgoing Presidnet Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), is 70. AMLO’s replacement, Claudia Sheinbaum is 62.
Across the Atlantic in the European Union, no heads of state surpass 68 years of age. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk is the oldest at 67. The average for the entire block is 54 years —two and a half decades less than the average of Trump and Biden’s respective ages.
Across the Pacific, there are more similarities regarding the age of major regional power players. The Presidents of China, Xi Jinping, and Russia, Vladimir Putin, are 71. Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, is 73. The oldest world leader is Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, who is 91 years old.
Pew Research studied the relationship between ‘freedom’ and age and found that countries with older leaders tend to be more authoritarian. Leaders in those countries who continue to serve into their late 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90s have had decades to consolidate power and ensure that the next generation to join their party is loyal to their faction.