Jimmy Carter says he's hoping to vote for Kamala Harris as 100th birthday approaches

WASHINGTON - Former President Jimmy Carter told family that as he approaches his milestone 100th birthday this fall that he's holding on to vote in the next presidential election.

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

Carter on Oct. 1 would make U.S. history as the only president ever to live to be 100 years old. The Democratic former president has been receiving hospice care for over a year. Initially, family was told he had a matter of days to live. In 2015, the 39th president was diagnosed with cancer that had spread to his brain. In 2019, Carter broke his hip.

Jason Carter said in June that his grandfather is “experiencing the world as best he can as he continues through this process” and that Carter isn’t awake every day, though he’ll occasionally crack jokes with family.

In recent days, Jason Carter told the Journal-Constitution that the former president is "more alert and interested in politics and the war in Gaza."

A blockbuster birthday musical gala has been planned Sept. 17 at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre to celebrate the longest-living president in U.S. history. He won't have to wait for Election Day to vote. Early voting in Georgia begins Oct. 15.

Carter voted in the Georgia primary in May, according to family.

“He’s not going to miss an election,” Jason Carter said at the time. “It’s important to him. I mean, that’s the person he is.”

A representatives from the Carter Center in Atlanta declined comment on the former president's remarks as relayed by his family to Georgia's largest newspaper.

Contributing: Darren Samuelsohn.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jimmy Carter says he's 'trying to make it' to 100 to vote for Harris