Nearing his 100th birthday and in hospice care since February 2023, former President Jimmy Carter reportedly has one goal: voting for Kamala Harris against Donald Trump.
“I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” Carter told his son Chip this week, according to his grandson Jason Carter, as recounted to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Harris, a fellow Democrat, will face Republican Trump in the presidential election on November 5. Carter’s 100th birthday is on October 1.
Carter, who served as a Democrat in the White House from 1977 to 1981, is the oldest living president. He has been in poor health for several years, and his family announced he entered hospice care on February 18, 2023, leading many to believe the end of his life was near.
In March, current President Joe Biden said he had been asked to deliver Carter’s eulogy. Biden also mentioned that Carter’s doctors had “found a way to keep him going for a lot longer than they anticipated because they found a breakthrough.”
In October 2023, as the White House celebrated Carter’s 99th birthday, former Democratic National Committee chairperson Donna Brazile described the former Georgia governor as “a towering, old southern oak … as good as they come and tough as they come.”
The following month, Carter’s wife, Rosalynn Carter, passed away at the age of 96. Married for 77 years, the couple campaigned for human rights and mental health reform throughout Carter’s naval career, political career in Georgia, White House tenure, and a notably productive post-presidency.
In 2002, Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize for his “decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
In 2021, he told the Associated Press that the secret to a long life was “to marry the right person.”
Recently, the Journal-Constitution reported that Jason Carter said his grandfather had been “more alert and interested in politics and the war in Gaza,” the latter being a complex issue for Harris, especially as she nears a decision on her vice-presidential choice.
Jimmy Carter expressed his desire to vote for Harris, who has served as Biden’s vice-president, when Chip Carter asked if he was trying to make it to 100. Early voting in Georgia begins on October 15, two weeks after Carter’s centenarian birthday.