Former President Jimmy Carter, the oldest living president, is hoping to vote for Kamala Harris during the November elections, his grandson said.

"I'm only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris," the 99-year-old former president said, according to his grandson, Jason Carter, who relayed a conversation Carter had with his son Chip earlier this week to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Carter, who is set to turn 100 on October 1, entered hospice care in February 2023 after a series of hospital stays. Jason Carter said in May the 39th president is "coming to an end" when providing an update on his health.

Carter, a Democrat and one-term president, is a survivor of metastatic brain cancer and liver cancer and underwent a brain surgery after a fall in 2019. The former president is widely revered for his championing of human rights and brokering the Camp David Accords in 1978 between Egypt and Israel.

Carter, a peanut farmer and US Navy lieutenant before entering politics, served one term as governor of Georgia before becoming president.

By the former president's side was his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, who passed away in November, just days after entering hospice care. The former first lady, a humanitarian and mental health advocate who was an influential figure in the White House, founded the Carter Center with her husband in his post-presidency in hopes of advancing world peace and health.

Carter's 100th Birthday Celebration

Former president Jimmy Carter is less than two months away from becoming a centenarian, and he’s hoping to make it to 100 so he can vote Kamala Harris for president. Carter’s much-anticipated birthday is October 1, just two weeks before his home state, Georgia, opens early voting for the 2024 general election.

“I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” Carter told his son Chip, according to reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jason Carter, grandson of Jimmy and former state senator and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, told the outlet about the conversation, noting that his grandfather has been “more alert and interested in politics and the war in Gaza” in recent days.

Carter, the nation’s 39th president, has been in hospice care since February of 2023. And last August, he and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter shared that they were entering their “final chapter” together. A few months later, in November, Rosalynn passed away at the age of 96.

In addition to voting, Carter plans to celebrate his birthday early in September with a music-filled night at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Carter will be honored by a wide range of artists, including Chuck Leavell, D-Nice, Drive-By Truckers, Eric Church, GROUPLOVE, Maren Morris, and The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus, per Associated Press.

“Whether it was on his record players, on the campaign trail, or on the White House lawn,” Jason said in a statement about the celebration, “music has been and continues to be a source of joy, comfort and inspiration for my grandfather.”

Carter's Political Stance

Throughout Jimmy Carter’s health complications, he’s remained remarkably active in politics.

During the summer protests of 2020, Carter released a statement condemning “racial injustices,” adding, “People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say ‘no more’ to a racially discriminatory police and justice system.” Later that year, he and Rosalynn endorsed Joe Biden for president during a pre-recorded speech at the Democratic National Convention. (In 2019 he said that there ought to be an age limit for presidents and that at 80 years old, he didn’t think he could “undertake the duties that I experienced when I was president.”)

In May, according to his family, Carter voted in Georgia’s primary. “He’s not going to miss an election,” his grandson said. “It’s important to him. I mean, that’s the person he is.”

Carter's Health and Legacy

Nearing his 100th birthday and in hospice care since February 2023, the former president Jimmy Carter reportedly has one goal: voting for Kamala Harris against Donald Trump.

“I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” Carter told his son Chip this week, as his grandson Jason Carter recounted to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Harris, Carter’s fellow Democrat, will face the Republican Trump for the presidency on 5 November. Carter’s 100th birthday will fall on 1 October.

A Democrat who was in the White House from 1977 to 1981, Carter is the oldest living president. In ill health for several years, his family announced that he entered hospice care on 18 February 2023. Many took that announcement to mean Carter was near the end of his life.

And the next month, the current president, Joe Biden, said he had been asked to deliver Carter’s eulogy.

Biden also said Carter’s doctors had “found a way to keep him going for a lot longer than they anticipated because they found a breakthrough”.

In October 2023, as the White House celebrated Carter’s 99th birthday, the former Democratic National Committee chairperson Donna Brazile said the former Georgia governor was “a towering, old southern oak … as good as they come and tough as they come”.

The following month, Carter’s wife, Rosalynn Carter, died aged 96. The couple, who campaigned for human rights and mental health reform, were married for 77 years, through Jimmy Carter’s time in the US navy, in Georgia state politics, in the White House and in a post-presidency widely regarded as one of the most productive.

In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel peace prize, “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”.

In 2021, he told the Associated Press the secret to a long life was “to marry the right person”.

Carter's Final Chapter

Former President Jimmy Carter, who is in hospice care and is less than two months away from his 100th birthday, is holding out to vote for Kamala Harris for president, his grandson Jason Carter told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

His son Chip Carter had asked if he was trying to make it to his 100th birthday, according to Jason Carter, a former Georgia state senator. The nonagenarian then told his son, “I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” his grandson said.

Carter entered hospice care at his Georgia home in February 2023. He is the oldest living and longest-lived former president in U.S. history. He will turn 100 years old on Oct. 1, and early voting in Georgia begins on Oct. 15.

Carter has had less frosty relations with Donald Trump relative to his fellow former Democratic presidents. He has criticized some of Trump’s behaviors while also defending him from the media in the past. However, in 2019, he suggested that the Republican was an illegitimate president, saying, “Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.”

Meanwhile, Trump has made references to the 99-year-old in his attacks on President Joe Biden. During a campaign speech in January, Trump brought up former first lady Rosalynn Carter’s funeral (which his wife attended but he did not) saying, “It was beautiful. Jimmy Carter was there. I thought to myself, ‘Jimmy Carter is happy now, because he will go down as a brilliant president by comparison to Joe Biden.’”

Less than two months until his 100th birthday, former President Jimmy Carter reportedly has something other than his personal milestone to look forward to: voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

That's according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which spoke with Carter's son, Chip, earlier this week.

Carter is "more alert and interested in politics" in recent days, his family told the newspaper.

The former president has been in home hospice care for well over a year.

Carter's wife June passed away in November after 77 years of marriage. Her funeral is likely the final time Carter will be seen in public.

Carter, who's often celebrated more for his humanitarian work after his time in the White House, was a peanut farmer before serving as a lieutenant in the Navy during World War II. He served as Georgia's Governor before winning the White House in 1976. His signature achievement in office was the Camp David Accords, which saw Israel make peace with Egypt after decades of conflict. Deep economic turmoil fueled his defeat four years later to Republican Ronald Reagan.

Carter has survived metastatic brain cancer, liver cancer and brain surgery. After a series of hospital stays, he announced in February 2023 that he would no longer seek medical treatment and would enter home hospice care.