Biden’s age affects final campaign with focus on aging in place.

Is President Biden Too Old to Run Again in 2024?

President Joe Biden has already made history as the oldest commander in chief the United States has ever had. If Biden, 80, wages a successful bid to return to the White House in 2024, he will sit just outside the top 10 list of oldest serving leaders in the world.

The Age Issue

The age issue has the potential to pull both ways in 2024, particularly if the general election is a rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump. Biden and his White House operation and campaign team are painting the president’s senior status as a reflection of his hard-won real-world experience from 36 years in the Senate, eight as vice president, and now going on four in the White House. Republican opponents, and, increasingly, some in his own party, view his age as a political liability.

Republicans have their own problem with a potentially senior standard-bearer in Trump. He’s the front-runner to claim the GOP nomination in 2024, even facing several declared Republican rivals and several more who could still jump into the race. Trump would be 78 on inauguration day if he can be the first president since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to win nonconsecutive terms as president.

Concerns About Biden’s Age

After two years of watching the president in action, including several verbal and physical miscues, opponents say Biden is not up to the job of running the country. And GOP officials are saying out loud what voters have been telling pollsters. An April NBC poll showed 70% of people think Biden is too old to run again.

With Biden’s reelection campaign off the ground, White House staffers are starting to open up about concerns they have about their boss. The press corps has been less than impressed with Biden’s scant meetings with them. The White House has rarely let the president interact with reporters outside of tightly controlled settings, and he has forgone interviews with major outlets that have been customary for U.S. leaders for decades.

Playing Up His Role as the Trump Alternative

After running a “basement campaign” in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced people to stay in their homes and limited traditional politicking of the variety Biden grew up with, the 2024 contest will be a return to normal. That dynamic could pose problems if Biden appears to be a low-energy candidate when compared to the active Trump team. Or he could lean into the dichotomy, playing up his role as the Trump alternative.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), a Biden campaign co-chairman, said as much when he invoked the president’s favorite phrase, “Don’t compare me to the almighty; compare me to the alternative,” in an interview on ABC.

The Age Factor

If Biden gets his wish and matches up against Trump for a second campaign, the old-age question might be a problem lost to the history books as both candidates fight to dispel doubts about whether the leader of the free world should be someone more familiar with the new world. Former Texas GOP Rep. Will Hurd said age will be a factor, one way or another, but if Trump is the GOP nominee, it’s one both parties will have to account for.

“This is a potential rematch in 2024 that nobody wants to see,” Hurd said. “Unfortunately, whether we like it or not, age is going to be a factor in this campaign because, guess what? Donald Trump’s no spring chicken either. So this is something that both candidates are going to have to deal with in the primaries and President Biden in the general election.”

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