How did the 2020 presidential race come to be dominated by a bunch of 70-year olds? I’m not being ageist, I just really don’t understand why millennials and Gen Xers are so gaga over these septuagenarians while younger, more diverse candidates languish in the polls.

“People under 35 — we’re doing really, really well. We are not doing well with older people. We have a lot of work to do and I acknowledge that. …

Bernie Sanders, Oct 2019

As a 70-year old myself, I know I should be happy about this turn of events but I’m genuinely baffled. And full disclosure, I am a British citizen so I am not even voting in the American elections.

that said, I’m fascinated by what’s going on politically and have some observations about the leading candidates.

• They are all authentically “themselves” – including the incumbent, Donald Trump.
• This may be the one thing that comes naturally to older candidates (and older people in general). Once you hit a certain age, you just become more comfortable in your skin and have a sense of who you are, a trait that sometimes eludes younger people.
• All the leading contenders except Biden are strongly anti-establishment and left-leaning which aligns with where younger voters’ heads are these days.
• Young voters are still “feeling the Bern” but they are also enamored by other progressive candidates especially Elizabeth Warren.
• Ironically, Bernie Sanders’ biggest challenge is winning over older voters (only 6% of voters 65+ in Iowa favor Bernie)! They’re skeptical of his ability to deliver on any of his promises.
• Demonizing billionaires is de rigueur for most candidates which ties in nicely with younger voters’ activism around “income inequality.” Although the candidates certainly appear to need that “filthy billionaire” money to fund their campaign promises of free college, Medicare for all, affordable housing and student loan forgiveness. Again, ironically, last time around, it was millionaires whose feet were being held to the fire. Now, as most candidates including Bernie Sanders have joined the ranks of millionaires themselves, they’re targeting billionaires.
• In this political climate, middle-of-the-roaders like Biden are toast (although his downfall has more to do with his frequent bouts of out-of-touchness than being a centrist).

Scroll down for more on how these septuagenarian candidates have managed to dominate the field.

They’re avoiding “elderly” stereotypes

• Warren is almost comically energetic much to the delight of SNL skit writers.
• Sanders has the full support of young progressives and now with AOC by his side, he has “younger” bona fides while remaining authentically irascible.
• Trump’s use of Twitter has been a gamechanger for politics. His social media chops make him appear younger than his age. He has forever changed how presidents communicate with the electorate and significantly circumvented the need for a press corps to get his message out.

The “OK Boomers” are significantly outraising their younger counterparts

• Each of these septuagenarians has raised boatloads of cash, way more than the younger candidates in the race.
• Elizabeth Warren has raised the highest percentage from older donors (51% are over age-65).
• Andrew Yang, on the other hand, has the youngest donor base. Only 23% of his support is coming from those over 65 while 20% are under age-34 (the highest percentage of all candidates).
• Sanders, however, raised the highest amount from 18-34-year-olds.
• Mayor Pete has raised the most money from big donors who happen to skew predominantly white and highly-educated.

An alarming statistic about younger voters: 20% across all ethnic and race lines find none of the current Democratic candidates compelling and want other candidates in the race

And finally, a fascinating study from GenForward shows the most important issues for young voters by race/ethnicity.

Based on how often we hear that environmental and climate change issues are #1 for Gen Z and millennials, this study adds some important nuance.

Younger African Americans reported being most concerned about racism, gun control, and health care. Asian Americans reported being most concerned about health care, gun control, and climate change. Latino respondents reported prioritizing immigration, climate change, and racism. Only young white Americans listed climate change as #1, followed by health care, and income inequality.

Bottom Line

At this point, I feel it is still a wide-open race. Any of the front runners could stumble, not recover their momentum and be out of the race. Dig around enough and something incriminating will almost certainly turn up, e.g., culturally inappropriate photos from some long-forgotten Halloween party, a random sexual comment, consulting work for some now besmirched company like Facebook or Johnson & Johnson. And when the top candidates are all in their 70’s, health scares are par for the course, as we just saw with Sanders.

The 2020 elections will go down as the wackiest and most unconventional we’ve had in decades (if ever). Things are shifting even as I write with Beto out and Mayor Pete moving up the ranks. And, of course, impeachment is hanging in the air as if things weren’t exciting enough already.