Around half of those surveyed said the head of state should be in their 50s
The overwhelming majority of Americans believe that the country should not be run by an elderly president, a poll by the Pew Research Center has revealed.
Only 3% of respondents said they wanted someone in their 70s or older in the Oval Office, according to the study, which came out on Thursday.
Aged 80, current US President Joe Biden is the oldest-ever American leader. His main rival in next year’s presidential election is Donald Trump, who turned 77 in June.
The authors of the poll noted that they did not specifically mention Biden or Trump when asking people about the “ideal age” for the head of state.
However, according to the poll, Americans are also unlikely to have faith in a young president. The US Constitution dictates that the White House occupant must be at least 35 years of age, and only 3% of those surveyed said they wanted the head of state to be in their 30s.
Almost half of respondents (49%) believe that the president should be someone in their 50s. Another 24% said they’d like the head of state to be in their 60s, while 17% opted for someone in their 40s, the poll showed.
Views about the ideal presidential age were similar among Democrats and Republicans, the study pointed out.
The research was carried out on June 5-11 among 5,115 adults. All are members of the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), and were recruited through random national sampling of residential addresses.
A poll last month by CNN/SSRS revealed that 36% of Americans are against Biden and Trump running in the 2024 election. A race between the two would be something “a historic number of Americans don’t want,” CNN stated.
