Left to proper: Rosalie Bablak, 86; David Reckless, 88; John Fuller, 81 on the Passavant Community Abundant Life Center in Zelienople, Pa. in September.

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Left to proper: Rosalie Bablak, 86; David Reckless, 88; John Fuller, 81 on the Passavant Community Abundant Life Center in Zelienople, Pa. in September.

Nate Smallwood for NPR

David Reckless did not hesitate when requested about the principle distinction between being 80 and 88 years outdated.

“Energy.”

“I used to be more or less the energy bunny,” the 88-year-old mentioned, trying down over a mannequin practice set in Zelienople, Pennsylvania. Now, not a lot. “More naps in my day. That kind of thing.”

The query of age is looming over subsequent 12 months’s presidential election, as a result of President Joe Biden, who’s 80 now, is operating for a second time period. And his most certainly opponent, in keeping with nearly each ballot of the Republican main area, can be former president Donald Trump, who’s 77.

If you measure each males’s age from the day they first took workplace, meaning Americans will seemingly select between the nation’s oldest-ever president, and its second oldest.

“My personal opinion is that neither one should be running,” Reckless mentioned. “Things go downhill in a hurry sometimes, and I think both of them are in pretty good health right now, but two, three, four years down the road, I’d be concerned about that.”

David Reckless tinkers with the mannequin trains.

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Politics would not often come up throughout Reckless’ mannequin practice membership conferences at Lutheran Senior Life’s Passavant Community. But ballot after ballot after ballot exhibits that for all the opposite points in subsequent 12 months’s election, together with Trump’s a number of felony legal prices, the candidate’s ages – and Biden’s particularly – are prime of thoughts for a lot of voters.

Biden’s physician has repeatedly given him a clear invoice of well being, however his occasional stumbles, like a tumble this spring throughout an Air Force Academy commencement, have made headlines.

And polls have repeatedly proven that they’ve left an impression. In nearly each current nationwide survey from a serious information outlet, a large majority of voters have raised considerations about Biden’s capacity to do the job in a second time period.

No one is healthier positioned to evaluate the impacts of age on the candidates than the voters who’ve lived it themselves: seniors across the identical age as Biden and Trump. NPR interviewed greater than a dozen of them. And not simply any group of seniors: seniors who reside and forged ballots in western Pennsylvania, a area that is of key strategic and symbolic significance to each Biden and Trump’s marketing campaign.

The counties round Pittsburgh are residence to white, working class communities that helped put Trump in workplace, and rich suburbs that swung the opposite manner as Biden received the state in 2020.

Pittsburgh Democrat Nettie Henning, 70, says she’d like a youthful candidate than Biden, however she would not imagine the social gathering has ready a stable different. “[Biden] is our best chance at this point to save our democracy.”

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The conversations with folks from a spread of political backgrounds confirmed the overall developments of the polls: most voters wished each Biden and Trump would step apart for a youthful technology. Few, if any, expressed real pleasure in regards to the prospect of a rematch of the brutal 2020 marketing campaign.

But in addition they revealed rather more nuance. Many of the seniors felt that youthful folks do not absolutely respect or perceive the growing older course of. Several thought Biden’s bodily and verbal stumbles have been typically overblown, although most mentioned they did not personally have the vitality to be president at their age.

The interviews confirmed three recurring themes in how older voters are approaching subsequent 12 months’s election.

1. Voters noticed the candidates’ well being compared to their very own

The regulars in Stella Hopewell’s line dancing class on the Vintage Center for Active Adults, in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood are all seniors. But Hopewell mentioned they’ve outlasted highschool college students up to now after they’ve held joint occasions. “We dance those young people into the ground,” she mentioned proudly on the finish of a two-hour class.

Twice every week, the group powers by coordinated steps, dips, twirls and crossovers as funk, soul, and go-go blast by the audio system.

“The discipline, both mental and physical, is fabulous,” mentioned Cathie Huber, a daily. “Absolutely fabulous.”

Huber is 80, the identical age as Biden. “I feel at 80, I’m just as sharp as I ever was. I have physical liabilities, but that has nothing to do with the mental capabilities.”

Cathie Huber line dances at the Vintage Senior Services in September.

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She helps Biden, will vote for him subsequent 12 months, and thinks the protection of his age is overblown.

“I think another term isn’t going to hurt him a bit,” Huber mentioned. “A lot of the ladies out on the floor are past 80 and we keep going. This keeps us young.”

Huber’s fellow line dancer, Len Zapler, sees issues in a different way. “My chief worry is, I’m losing it,” the 85-year-old mentioned. “And he’s on the verge of losing it, I think. So I wouldn’t want this guy out there running the show.”

Zapler retains lively with line dancing, yoga and different bodily exercise, however has felt his response instances and reminiscence fade lately. He’s been troubled by a few of the protection of Biden, notably his stumbles in speeches.

Still, Biden typically quips that voters ought to choose him towards “the alternative, not the Almighty,” and inside that framing, Zapler gives a twist.

He’s a Republican, and has been voting Republican on the ticket since 1960. “I didn’t even vote for Kennedy,” he joked. That prolonged by 2016 and 2020, when Zapler forged ballots for Trump. But he mentioned he could not do it once more in 2024.

“I think he’s really gone off the rails,” he mentioned. “I’d be hard pressed to vote, but I think I’d vote for Biden, if I had to. But I hope he has a very stalwart and capable vice president. That’s what I pray for.”

2. Voters’ perceptions of age broke down alongside partisan traces

Most Democratic seniors NPR spoke to weren’t particularly fearful about Biden’s well being. “Biden is coping with his aging process very well,” mentioned Preston Shimer, 84, of Mt. Lebanon. “He’s still coping with his stuttering problem, which impacts his verbal presentation. Well, he’s had to do that for his entire life.”

Shimer put extra weight on Biden’s report and cupboard than the best way his gait has modified with age. “I don’t care about his golf score,” he mentioned. “You’re basically electing a team and therefore, I think it’s clear that I think that Biden has a far better team.”

Preston Shimer, 84.

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Looking on the identical proof, Rosalie Bablak, an 86-year-old Republican who lives within the Passavant Community, had considerations: “We have someone who sits in the Oval Office who’s going to touch the button if we’re going to have nuclear war. I would like someone who’s more quickly thinking.”

Bablak mentioned youthful folks have been extra terrified of growing older than they need to be. “The passage of life is good and it’s good being old,” she mentioned. “We have fun.” But she mentioned the knowledge of older politicians is healthier suited to advisory roles than elected workplace.

“I honestly wish we had younger candidates,” she mentioned.

3. Many older voters really feel it is time for a brand new technology of politicians

Susan Hughes, 77, of Mt. Lebanon cannot fathom why politicians need to proceed to serve into their eighties. “I know my capacity, and I think I have pretty good capacity,” she mentioned. “And I wonder how in the world they could not want to retire.”

Seniors play pool at Vintage Senior Services within the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh in September.

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Hughes is a Republican and mentioned she favored the insurance policies of the final administration — “the Trump-Pence administration,” she emphasizes — however she was bothered by Trump’s character. “It’s just tearing apart the fabric of our culture, I think,” she mentioned. She voted for Biden in 2020.

When it involves age, she has considerations not nearly Biden and Trump, but additionally different older politicians like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. who has had public well being points this 12 months. Hughes questioned the motive for staying in workplace. “Is this about power, or is it about service?”

Hughes wasn’t the one voter who dreaded the opportunity of a Trump-Biden rematch in 2024.

“Advice to both: don’t run,” mentioned John Fuller, 71, of Marshall Township, a registered Democrat who describes himself as an impartial voter. He voted for Biden however is not certain who he’d select between the 2 candidates this time round.

He has questions on Biden’s well being, however appreciated the sense of order Biden delivered to authorities. “In Trump’s administration, there was always consternation, always challenge,” he mentioned. “And he was on the news every day.”

“It’s not good for the country,” mentioned 71-year-old Ahmad Zaghab, an impartial voter, on a break between chair yoga and an aquatic health class, on the Passavant Community’s Abundant Life Center.

But he mentioned he feels an obligation to vote, and if he is confronted with a alternative between the 2 earlier presidents subsequent fall, he mentioned, “I just close my eyes and do it.”

Ahmad Zaghab follows instruction from Sally Thomas throughout an aqua health class at Passavant Community Abundant Life Center in Zelienople in September.

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