The oldest living former president will hit the milestone on Oct. 1 — but it seems Election Day on Nov. 5 is what Jimmy Carter’s been thinking about most, his grandson revealed this week.
“I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” Jason Carter said the 99-year-old told his son, Chip, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Georgia peanut farmer, who served as president from 1977 to 1981, entered hospice care in February 2023 and was not expected to live much longer.
Eighteen months later, his grandson said he recently told Chip he was much more concerned about seeing Harris, 59, elected to the White House over her opponent, former President Donald Trump, 78, rather than reaching the century mark.
He’s also “more alert and interested in politics and the war in Gaza,” Jason Carter, a former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate, added.
The remark comes just three months after he gave an ominous update about this grandfather’s health.
“He really is, I think, coming to the end that, as I’ve said before, there’s a part of this faith journey that is so important to him, and there’s a part of that faith journey that you only can live at the very end, and I think he has been there in that space,” Jason Carter said at the 28th Rosalynn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum in May.
Carter would be able to cast his ballot just two weeks after his 100th birthday when Georgia’s early voting period kicks off on Oct. 15.
Carter’s wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, died in November 2023 at the age of 96.
Ahead of his 100th birthday, a concert fundraiser has been scheduled at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre on Sept. 17 to raise money for the Carter Center — his non-profit organization that promotes human rights and democracy, according to the Journal-Constitution.