Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Time for new presidential candidates in 2024

Time for new presidential candidates in 2024

US President Donald Trump (L) and Democratic Presidential candidate and former US Vice President Joe Biden during the final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22, 2020.

Photos by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI & JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Corbin is Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the University of Northern Iowa.

Sherlock Holmes’ statement,“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data,” in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A study in Scarlet,” is a pearl of wisdom to use when thinking about America’s political future.


The following data applies to the Nov. 5, 2024 presidential election notion that Donald Trump and Joe Biden are too old to be president.

First, according to a Nov. 10-14 Morning Consult poll, 65% of Americans don’t want Biden `OR’ Trump to run again. Likewise, the Nov. 26-30, 2022 CNBC All-America Economic Survey found 61% of the public think Trump should not seek the presidency and 70% say the same about Biden.

Second, in a fall 2022 Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, 60% of Americans would consider voting for a moderate independent if Biden and Trump were seeking office.

The data is quite consistent regarding electorate thoughts of Trump and Biden’s presidential future. It gets worse.

According to a Media voting exit poll on Nov. 8, 2022, only 44% of the respondents had a “favorable” opinion of the Democratic Party as well as of the Republican Party. Political party perceptions are hurting.

Karl Rove, a GOP consultant and contributor to the conservative Wall Street Journal stated, “… Americans may believe they can do better than a 78-year-old Republican and a nearly 82-year-old Democrat holding a rematch” (The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 17, 2022).

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

In reference to age, longitudinal research indicates that cognitive deterioration typically accelerates in one’s 70’s (Aartsen, et al, Journal of Gerontology, 2002). Both Trump and Biden are united in dotage, along with 26 Senators and 76 in the House of Representatives.

Take note of Derek Thompson’s comments from his article (Why do such elderly people run America?) that was published in The Atlantic, “... old governance can be bad governance. … it seems risky to leave the most important issues of life, death or welfare in the hands of a group of septuagenarians who are in the crosshairs of biologically predictable cognitive decline” (March 5, 2020).

The four databases plus a reality therapy understanding of cognitive decline and the importance of presidents making wise decisions strongly suggests it is time to seek presidential candidates under the age of 70. Let’s examine the GOP and Democrats’ presidential candidate bench.

The under age 70 Republicans who have hinted of wanting to be president include: Greg Abbott, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Brian Kemp, Kristi Noem, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Tim Scott, Chris Sununu and Glenn Younkin. GOP presidential wannabes over 70-years-old include John Bolton, Mike DeWine, Asa Hutchinson, Rick Scott and Donald Trump.

On the Democrats’ side, the potential under 70-year-old presidential candidate pool might include: Stacey Abrams, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Ro Khanna, Amy Klobuchar, J.B. Pritzker, Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro and Gretchen Whitmer. The over age 70 Democrat presidential hopefuls include Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Brookings Institution senior fellow and Wall Street Journal contributor William Galston noted “a 2024 rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump would feature two of the least popular presidential candidates in modern history—even within their own parties. If 2024 were a rerun of 2020, 58% of voters say that they would `consider’ a `moderate independent presidential candidate” (Aug. 12, 2022, Brookings). Galston’s data reference is similar to the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll cited earlier.

In 2022, dozens of former Republicans and Democrats created a new centrist-based party, called Forward. Some interesting moderate presidential candidates could include Liz Cheney, Larry Hogan, David Jolly, John Kasich, Christine Todd Whitman or Andrew Yang.

The 2024 presidential race is in full swing. It’s going to be a wild ride for Republicans, Democrats and the Forward Party, let alone the voters.

Read More

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump shaking hands
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the 2019 G20 summit in Oasaka, Japan.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

Shameful Concessions Will Not End Putin’s Threat to World Peace

Our President has proposed a shameful give-away of Crimea and an additional chunk of Ukraine to Vladimir Putin. This compounds President Obama’s shameful acquiescence in Putin’s seizing Crimea, and President Biden’s also failing to live up to the security assurances that the United States and Russia gave Ukraine in 1994 when Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear arsenal in the Budapest Memorandum.

From my experience as a litigation attorney who participated in numerous mediations before retiring, I have found that successful mediations require a realistic assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, wants, and needs of the parties, including their willingness to take a calculated risk. In court, one never knows what a judge or jury will do. The outcome of war is likewise uncertain. In negotiations, wants should not obscure a realistic assessment of one’s needs. A party’s unmet true nonnegotiable needs can justify the risk. What are the needs of Ukraine, Russia, and the West?

Keep ReadingShow less
Michael Rivera: The Importance of Getting Involved
- YouTube

Michael Rivera: The Importance of Getting Involved

Michael Rivera is the Berks County Commissioner. The Republican began serving in January of 2020.

"My number one priority is fiscal responsibility," Rivera said in describing the focus of his work as County Commissioner. "Counties generate their money primarily through property taxes. My commitment to the residents of Berks County is to be fiscally responsible with their money."

Keep ReadingShow less
Red State Voters Approved Progressive Measures. GOP Lawmakers Are Trying to Undermine Them.

Republican Sen. Kim Hammer, left of center, answers questions about proposed laws that would alter the citizen-initiated ballot measure process during an Arkansas Senate committee hearing in February.

Credit:Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate

Red State Voters Approved Progressive Measures. GOP Lawmakers Are Trying to Undermine Them.

Across the country, Republican lawmakers have been working to undermine or altogether undo the will of the voters by making it harder to pass amendments and laws through citizen-led initiatives.

In Missouri, the 2025 legislative session was dominated by Republican lawmakers trying to reverse two major measures that voters had put on the ballot and approved just months before; one made abortion in the state legal again, while the other created an employee sick leave requirement.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Populist podcasters love RFK Jr., and he took the same left-right turn toward Trump as they did
Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Tariffs, Vaccines & Chronic Disease: The Hidden Link

When public figures take actions that contradict both expert consensus and common sense, we’re left to wonder: What are they thinking?

Two recent examples—Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine rhetoric—illustrate the puzzling nature of such choices.

Keep ReadingShow less