Jimmy Carter turns 100 today and has expressed that his birthday wish is to be able to vote for Kamala Harris.
The 39th president is already the oldest in United States history and is now the first to become a centenarian.
When he entered hospice care in 2023 at his home in Georgia, he was believed to have only days to live.
But in recent months he has reportedly “buffed up” and told his grandchildren that his new goal is to make it to Election Day and vote for the Democratic candidate.
Your vote could be important as Georgia is a key state that polls show is on a knife edge between Harris and Donald Trump. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by just 12,000 votes.
According to his family, Carter is following the election and respects his friend Joe Biden’s decision to step aside.
Jimmy Carter turns 100 today and has expressed that his birthday wish is to be able to vote for Kamala Harris. He is pictured last year at the funeral of his beloved wife Rosalynn.
Harris has called several times and the former president has formed a “real personal kinship” with her, her grandson Jason Carter told the New York Times.
The former president feels “driven by her story as a true example of the American dream,” the younger Carter said.
Carter’s last public appearance was almost a year ago at the funeral of his beloved wife Rosalynn.
They were the first couple to be married the longest, as they were married for 77 years.
Carter had a “low period” after that, but now he’s “reengaged with the world,” his grandson told the New York Times.
According to his family, Carter is following the election and respects his friend Joe Biden’s decision to step aside.
Carter decided last year to receive palliative care and “spend the remaining time at home with his family” instead of further medical intervention.
“I think all of us are surprised to see that he’s still going. It’s quite possible that he’s immortal,” said Jason Carter.
His birthday will be celebrated in the small town of Plains, Georgia, population 500, where he lives.
The celebrations include a flyover by military aircraft, a concert and a naturalization ceremony for 100 new American citizens.
According to his family, Carter now spends his time at home listening to music, including Bob Dylan, and following the Atlanta Braves.
A star-studded concert at Atlanta’s Fox Theater in early September raised $1.2 million to support the international programs of the Carter Center, which Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter founded in 1982 to “make peace, fight against diseases and generate hope.
Always at Jimmy’s side was Rosalynn, who died last November, after 77 years of marriage, which produced four children and 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren (the family appears in the photo in the late 70s).
Carter’s vote could be important as Georgia is a key state that polls show is on a knife edge between Harris and Donald Trump. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by just 12,000 votes
Meanwhile, thousands of Habitat for Humanity volunteers recently gathered to build 30 homes in St. Paul, Minnesota, over five days, led by country music giants Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, who worked alongside the Carters during years, beginning with projects in the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone.
Presidential historian Cassandra Newby-Alexander, a professor of Virginia black history and culture at Norfolk State University, said the strength of Carter’s legacy is in his morality.
She said, “I think he’s probably done more personally in his post-presidency than anyone else because he’s not out there looking for attention.”
‘He’s looking to change things. He’s not out there trying to make money for himself. He’s out there trying to live the life of a Christian, a true Christian, one who cares about the poor, the homeless and the children.’
He added: “In many ways, he set the standard for what presidents should be in their post-presidency, as someone who will continue to do good, someone who will continue to positively impact society.”
In addition to President Carter’s 100th birthday, we have seen him as a U.S. Navy submariner, peanut farmer and successful businessman, governor of Georgia, and winner of the Noble Peace Prize.
The 99-year-old served only one term as the country’s 39th president and had maintained a low public profile in recent years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter hugs his wife Rosalynn after receiving the latest news of his victory in the national general election on November 2, 1976.
He won the White House in 1976 as a little-known former governor of the South, promising honesty and competence after the Vietnam quagmire and the Watergate scandal that toppled Richard Nixon.
But neither in Atlanta nor in Washington did Carter have the power as many politicians do.
Even 28 years after his humiliating 1980 loss to Ronald Reagan, Carter failed to receive an invitation to speak at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
A young candidate named Barack Obama was wary of any association with the one-term president whom voters had rejected.
“It was still an epithet: ‘Another Jimmy Carter,'” said David Axelrod, Obama’s top adviser and confidant, calling it a “painful” decision for Obama.
Joe Trippi, who worked for Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, Carter’s liberal rival, said: “His was a unique presidency in that he came completely outside the party establishment and then continued to operate that way even in Washington.” . The Democratic Party never belonged to Jimmy Carter.