Jimmy Carter turns 100 today and has expressed his birthday wish is to get to vote for Kamala Harris.
The 39th president is already the longest lived in U.S. history and is now the first to become a centenarian.
When he went into hospice care in 2023 at home in Georgia it was believed he only had days to live.
But he has reportedly ‘perked up’ in recent months and told his grandchildren his new aim is to reach Election Day and vote for the Democratic nominee.
His vote could be important as Georgia is a key swing state which polls show is on a knife-edge between Harris and Donald Trump. In 2020, Biden beat Trump by just shy of 12,000 votes.
According to his family Carter is following the election and respected his friend Joe Biden’s decision to step aside.
Jimmy Carter turns 100 today and has expressed his birthday wish is to get to vote for Kamala Harris. He is pictured last year at his beloved wife Rosalynn’s funeral
Harris has phoned several times and the ex-president has formed a ‘real personal kinship’ with her, his grandson Jason Carter told the New York Times.
The former president is ‘compelled by her story as a real example of the American dream,’ the younger Carter said.
Carter’s last public appearance was nearly a year ago at the funeral of his beloved wife Rosalynn.
They were the longest-married first couple having been wed 77 years.
Carter had a ‘low period’ after that, but has now ‘gotten re-engaged with the world,’ his grandson told the New York Times.
According to his family Carter is following the election and respected his friend Joe Biden ‘s decision to step aside
Carter decided last year to receive hospice care and ‘spend his remaining time at home with his family’ instead of additional medical intervention
‘All of us, I think, are surprised to see that he’s still going. He may very well be immortal, Jason Carter said.
His birthday will be marked in the small 500-strong town of Plains, Georgia where he lives.
Celebrations include a flyover by military jets, a concert, and a naturalization ceremony for 100 new U.S. 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 was held at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre earlier in September and raised $1.2 million to support the international programs of The Carter Center, which Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter founded in 1982 to ‘wage peace, fight disease, and build hope.’
Always by Jimmy’s side was Rosalynn, who died last November, after 77 years of marriage which brought four children, and 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren (the family are pictured in the late 70s)
Carter’s vote could be importantt as Georgia is a key swing state which polls show is on a knife-edge between Harris and Donald Trump . In 2020, Biden beat Trump by just shy of 12,000 votes
Meanwhile, thousands of Habitat for Humanity volunteers gathered recently 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 for years, beginning with projects in the Hurricane Katrina disaster area.
Presidential historian Cassandra Newby-Alexander, 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 has 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 and the homeless and the children.’
She added: ‘In so many ways, he set the standard for how presidents should be in their post-presidency, as someone who is going to continue to do good, someone who’s going to continue to positively impact society.’
In addition to president Carter’s 100 years have seen him be a U.S. Navy submariner, a peanut farmer and successful businessman, Georgia governor, and a Noble Peace Prize winner.
The 99-year-old served only one term in office as the nation’s 39th president and had been keeping a low public profile in recent years due to the coronavirus pandemic
Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter embraces his wife Rosalynn after receiving the final 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 from the South, promising honesty and competence after the quagmire of Vietnam and the Watergate scandal that toppled Richard Nixon.
But in neither Atlanta nor Washington did Carter command power the way many politicians are able to do.
Even 28 years after his humbling 1980 defeat to Ronald Reagan, Carter could not draw an invitation to speak at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
A young nominee named Barack Obama was wary about any association with the one-term president whom voters had rejected.
“It was still an epithet: ‘Another Jimmy Carter,”‘ David Axelrod, top Obama adviser and confidant, said, calling it a ‘painful’ decision for Obama.
Joe Trippi, who worked for Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, Carter’s liberal rival, said: ‘His was a unique presidency in that it came from completely outside the party establishment and then continued to operate that way even in Washington. The Democratic Party never belonged to Jimmy Carter.’
