Following Tuesday’s primaries, former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden will face off in November in the first presidential rematch since 1956.
Both candidates secured enough electoral delegates to qualify for nomination. The GOP will hold its national convention in July, and the Democrats will follow in August. With no major contenders left in the race, it is all but certain the nation is set for a rematch.
Trump will be trying to accomplish a feat that only one president in the nation’s history has managed: regaining the White House after losing to a challenger. The only president to retake the job was Grover Cleveland, who served his first term in 1884 and then regained the presidency in 1892.
Biden is the first president to face his previous opponent in a major election since Adlai Stevenson challenged Dwight Eisenhower in back-to-back elections in 1956. Eisenhower defeated Stevenson in a landslide win, something that is highly doubtful in the upcoming election. Official numbers show that Biden defeated Trump by just 4.4% of the votes in 2020, with key victories in Georgia and Arizona. Biden won those states by 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively, as reported by CNN.
The latest poll reported by FiveThirtyEight was conducted by YouGov and The Economist between March 10 and 12 and showed a separation of just 2% with Trump in the lead.
Recent reporting by The Dallas Express shows that a majority of Americans lack confidence in Biden over his handling of the economy and immigration and have serious concerns about his age and mental capacity.
Biden and Trump are the oldest candidates to face off in a presidential election. Biden is 81, while Trump is 77. Major questions over Biden’s mental fitness arose on the heels of a report by Special Counsel Robert Hur that described Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Biden’s performance during the State of the Union address, however, seemed to have assuaged some fears, though several observers, including Trump, believe Biden may have been on stimulants, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Business Insider reported that a majority of voters did not want a rematch, showing that 70% of voters, including 50% of Democrats, think Biden should not be seeking another term. The same poll found that 56% of voters don’t want Trump to seek re-election, though a majority of Republicans are in support. The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that three-quarters of respondents thought Biden was too old. Just half had the same sentiment about Trump.
The question of the candidate’s age makes the issue of vice presidential selection even more critical.
The most recent president to die of natural causes while in office was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage on March 29, 1945. His successor, Harry S. Truman, would authorize the only use of atomic weapons against an opponent in the history of the world just over four months later.
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to return as Biden’s running mate, though her dismal polling numbers indicate she could be a liability. Trump has yet to announce a running mate.
