After spending months trying to get voters to think about anything other than how old their party’s presidential candidate was, Democrats are now putting age front and center as they work to sell Vice President Kamala Harris to the public, arguing the former prosecutor is just the right age to become commander in chief.
“She’s old enough to have over 30 years of experience in public service, and young enough to remember working her way through school at McDonald’s,” a male narrator says in a new 30-second ad from FF PAC, a super PAC expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on Harris’ behalf. The ad is airing through the presidential battleground states.
The ad is a remarkable display of how Democratic messaging has shifted since Joe Biden, 81, was on the ticket. The spot, which ends by promising Harris could move past a political era defined by the presidencies and candidacies of septuagenarian and octogenarian men, also shows how she is seeking to emphasize both her experience and, at 59, her relative youth.
“If you’re tired of this political era, and you’re ready to turn the page, Kamala Harris is ready to lead us into the future,” the narrator says over images of former President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 insurrection.
When Biden was on the ticket, Democrats desperately sought ways to convince voters to move past concerns about his age. They had him speak direct to camera in ads and tried to argue that his accomplishments proved any age concerns irrelevant. “Look, I’m not a young guy. That’s no secret,” he said in one ad. “But here’s the deal, I understand how to get things done for the American people.”
The campaign also sought to nullify the issue by noting that Trump, at age 78, was far from a spring chicken himself.
The now-infamous June presidential debate, where Biden struggled to complete sentences and looked frailer than ever, ultimately put the kibosh on those efforts and eventually led to his departure from the race last month.
Now, Democrats have a candidate who is just about the perfect age, according to public opinion surveys. A Pew Research Center poll from June 2023 found 49% of Americans said it was ideal for a president to be in their 50s, while another 24% said their 60s would be the ideal age. Harris turns 60 in October.
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The Democratic nominee now has an advantage on a slew of questions the party’s candidate formally trailed the Republican nominee on, with polls showing voters are now more concerned about Trump’s age, physical health and mental acuity than they are about Harris’. A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday found just 47% of voters were confident Trump had the “mental and physical stamina” to be president, compared to 57% who said the same of Harris.
When Monmouth asked that question about Biden in February, a mere 32% said they were confident.
The switch has clearly helped Democrats, with Harris opening small leads over Trump in most of the crucial battleground states and turning a race where they were distinct underdogs into a toss-up contest where Harris has momentum.
Lanae Erickson, a senior vice president at the moderate Democratic group Third Way, said Harris needed to strike a balance between riding the momentum her campaign has generated and persuading voters she has the mettle to handle international and domestic crises.
“That’s the Goldilocks thing: She’s new, she’s change, she’s the future. And also, she has 30 years of experience,” Erickson said.
“The breath of fresh air stuff tests well.”
– Evan Roth Smith, a pollster with the Democratic group Blueprint
On the other hand, in 2019, Third Way conducted polling on what traits voters were looking for in a president and regularly found voters believed female candidates — especially women of color – were too young to be president, regardless of their actual age. That included Harris, who at the time was 55 years old, or about eight years older than President Barack Obama was when he assumed the presidency.
“She was pretty much the exact right age to be president, but there was still a perception she needed to combat,” Erickson said.
Evan Roth Smith, a pollster with the Democratic group Blueprint, said there was some risk in talking about Harris’ age since it brings up a topic voters might associate with her unpopular boss. “The upside seems limited, and the downside could be that you remind people that until 5 minutes ago, Democrats were running a candidate most Americans thought [was] too old to be president,” he said.
But he noted that portraying Harris as a political change agent should be effective: “The breath of fresh air stuff tests well.”
Republican attacks have also shifted. The first general election ad from MAGA, Inc., the major super PAC supporting Trump, focused entirely on Biden’s age. “We can all see Joe Biden’s weakness,” a narrator said in the ad. “If Biden wins, can he even survive till 2029?”
But when it comes to attacking Harris, GOP outside groups are focused almost entirely on ideology. “Dangerously liberal” is how a new ad from MAGA, Inc. describes Harris.