Jimmy Carter Told Son Why He Wants to Live Past 100: 'I'm Only Trying to Make It to Vote for Kamala Harris'

Carter, whose 100th birthday is on Oct. 1, has been "more alert and interested in politics" in recent days, his family told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Jimmy Carter is less than two months out from his 100th birthday on Oct. 1, but loved ones say his sights are set on reaching a different milestone: voting Kamala Harris for president.

Jimmy has been in hospice care for a year and a half, and though his condition has not dramatically changed since February 2023, his grandson Jason Carter told Southern Living in June that the family's 99-year-old patriarch was "no longer awake every day."

Two months later, however, Jason is sharing a more optimistic health update about the 39th U.S. president.

Related: Jimmy Carter, 99, Is No Longer Awake Every Day, Grandson Says: 'He's Experiencing the World as Best He Can'

While promoting an upcoming tribute concert for his grandfather's birthday, Jason told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Jimmy has been "more alert and interested in politics and the war in Gaza" in recent days.

Jason previously said that his grandfather has good days and bad days, and that it is often hard to predict what state he will be in when family stops in for visits.

When Jimmy's son Chip Carter asked him this week whether he wants to live to see his 100th birthday, the former president responded, "I'm only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris," according to Jason.

Related: Kamala Harris Makes History as She Wins Democratic Presidential Nomination in Virtual Roll Call Vote

Though the 2024 presidential election is still three months away, the former president wouldn't have to wait until Nov. 5 to cast his ballot. Early voting in Georgia begins on Oct. 15, and absentee ballots are sent out up to 29 days before the election.

Georgia does not have any laws barring a ballot from being counted if someone dies between the early voting period and Election Day.

Related: Kamala Harris Responds to Donald Trump Saying She 'Turned Black': 'The American People Deserve Better'

Jimmy, a Democrat who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981, has earned bipartisan praise for his post-presidency humanitarian work. For a while, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient stayed quieter than other former presidents about politics, but he grew more vocal under the presidency of Donald Trump.

"I think it’s well-known that the incumbent [President Trump] is very careless with the truth," Jimmy told CBS News in a 2018 interview, adding: "I think I went through my campaign and my presidency without ever lying to the people or making a deliberately false statement, and I think that would be a very worthwhile thing to reinsert into politics these days."

“I think he’s a disaster … In human rights and in treating people equal,” the former president said in a separate Washington Post interview around the same time, before his wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, jumped in. “The worst is that he is not telling the truth, and that just hurts everything,” she said.

Related: Jimmy Carter Says Another 4 Years of a Donald Trump Presidency Would Be a 'Disaster'

When Trump was voted out of office in the 2020 election, Jimmy expressed optimism for the Biden-Harris administration.

"Rosalynn joins me in congratulating our friends President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris," he said in a statement. "We are proud of their well-run campaign and look forward to seeing the positive change they bring to our nation."

Georgia will play a significant role in the 2024 presidential election between Harris and Trump, as a swing state with 16 Electoral College votes. In 2020, Biden and Harris won Georgia by just 11,779 votes, or 0.23%.

Jimmy is deeply embedded in the state's politics as its former governor. He built his political career around seeking equality for all Americans at a time when segregationist and sexist attitudes dominated his rural Georgia community.

In his 1971 gubernatorial inauguration speech, he said that "the time for racial discrimination is over" and asserted that Black people should never "have to bear the additional burden" of being deprived equal opportunity. He has also routinely stood up for gender equality, supporting the Equal Rights Amendment and walking away from the Southern Baptist Church in 2000 when they declared that women cannot serve as pastors.

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As president, Jimmy nominated the first Black woman to the U.S. Cabinet, and he has since lived to see the first Black woman elected to Senate, the first Black female Supreme Court justice and the first Black female vice president.

His unforeseen longevity in hospice care allowed him to see the first Black woman nominated for president by a major party on Friday, Aug. 2.

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